Any fool can bomb a train, but just try sorting out the mess.

Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.

Violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with lying.

A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country

You should rejoice that you're in prison. Here you have time to think about your soul.

I had grown up among engineers, and I could remember the engineers of the twenties very well indeed: their open, shining intellects, their free and gentle humor, their agility and breadth of thought, the ease with which they shifted from one engineering field to another, and, for that matter, from technology to social concerns and art. Then, too, they personified good manners and delicacy of taste; well-bred speech that flowed evenly and was free of uncultured words; one of them might play a musical instrument, another dabble in painting; and their faces always bore a spiritual imprint.

One drop of truth can outweigh an ocean of lies