personally I don't trust literature that soothes people's consciences.

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.

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.

Philosophy appears to concern itself only with the truth, but perhaps expresses only fantasies, while literature appears to concern itself only with fantasies, but perhaps it expresses the truth.

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.

Literature is my life of course, but from an ontological point of view. From an existential point of view, I like being a teacher.

My job is to look at what politics is doing, not be a politician myself.