Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.

It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world.

I vividly remember the stories my grandfather told me about the carnage of the First World War, which people tend to forget was one of the worst massacres in human history.

The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character.

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

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.