In our town there was a Gestapo officer who loved to play chess. After the occupation began, he found out that my father was the chess master of the region, and so he had him to his house every night.

My ideal goal is to "mature" into childhood. That would be genuine maturity.

The days hardened with cold and boredom like last year's loaves of bread. One began to cut them with blunt knives without appetite, with a lazy indifference.

Lifelessness is only a disguise behind which hide unknown forms of life.

Under the imaginary table that separates me from my readers, don’t we secretly clasp each other’s hands?

In our town there was a Gestapo officer who loved to play chess. After the occupation began, he found out that my father was the chess master of the region, and so he had him to his house every night.

This enraged the other Nazi so much that the next morning he came to our house and he shot my father.