In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.

I have been writing in spurts, bit by bit. It is incredibly difficult. Everything is corroded, broken, dismantled; everything is covered with hardened layers of accumulated insensitivity, deafness, entrenched routine. It is disgusting.

As before the collapse, the setting sun brushed the tiles, brought out the warm brown glow on the wallpaper, and hung the shadow of the birch on the wall as if it were a woman's scarf.

What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.

That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it.

When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.

How many things in the world deserve our loyalty? Very few indeed. I think one should be loyal to immortality, which is another word for life, a stronger word for it.