Loyalty, Signor Molteni, not love. Penelope is loyal to Ulysses but we do not know how far she loved him...and as you know people can sometimes be absolutely loyal without loving. In certain cases, in fact, loyalty is form of vengeance, of black-mail, of recovering one's self-respect. Loyalty, not love.

Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation in turn becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources - and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on in the future.

Yes, one uses what one knows, but autobiography means something else. I should never be able to write a real autobiography; I always end by falsifying and fictionalizing—I’m a liar, in fact. That means I’m a novelist, after all. I write about what I know.

Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt.

War has become an affair of machines...and soldiers are little more than clever mechanics.

When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.

Good writers are monotonous, like good composers. They keep trying to perfect the one problem they were born to understand.