My books are about losers, about people who've lost their way and are engaged in a search.

There are some fundamental values it's impossible to be wrong about.

A l'intérieur de ce corps vivait l'âme d'une intellectuelle et poète dont personne n'avait le soupçon. Within this body lived the soul of an intellectual and poet, which nobody had suspected.

No, I'm happy to go on living the life I've chosen. I'm a university teacher and I like my job.

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

I live quietly at home among my family and friends.