There is something worse than dying, and that is humiliation - at least so it seemed to me.

I love cloisters, which are the architectural equivalent of a theological concept: perfect freedom within set boundaries.

There is no way to take the danger out of human relationships.

Rome is all things high and low. It is like God, it accommodates so much.

The most painful moral struggles are not those between good and evil, but between the good and the lesser good.

it's perfectly possible to hate one's fat and to love one's body at the same time.

One can be tired of Rome after three weeks and feel one has exhausted it; after three months one feels that one has not even scratched the surface of Rome; and after six months one wishes never to leave it.