The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.

Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.

A notorious inability to express emotions makes human beings the only animals capable of suicide.

The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.

Without sex, we would be dangerously invulnerable. We might believe we were not ridiculous. We wouldn't know rejection and humiliation so intimately.

It should not be Illiers-Combray that we visit: a genuine homage to Proust would be to look at our world through his eyes, not look at his world through our eyes.

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.