It is with fine sentiments that bad literature is made. Descend to the bottom of the well if you wish to see the stars.

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.

Our judgements about things vary according to the time left us to live -that we think is left us to live.

What thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.

Too chaste a youth leads to a dissolute old age.

I would like the events never to be told directly by the author, but rather to be introduced (and several times, from various angles) by those among the characters on whom they will have had any effect. I would like those events, in the account they will make of them, to appear slightly distorted; a kind of interest stems, for the reader, from the simple fact that he should need to restore. The story requires his collaboration in order to properly take shape.

The most decisive actions of our life - I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future - are, more often than not, unconsidered.