This thought strengthened in me my belief that all men, without exception, deserve to be pitied, if only because they are alive.

In life there are no problems, that is, objective and external choices; there is only the life which we do not resolve as a problem but which we live as an experience, whatever the final result may be.

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.

This thought strengthened in me my belief that all men, without exception, deserve to be pitied, if only because they are alive.

When I sit at my table to write, I never know what it's going to be until I'm under way. I trust in inspiration, which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't. But I don't sit back waiting for it. I work every day.

The less one notices happiness, the greater it is.

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