It is part of our nature to survive. Faith is an instinctive response to aspects of existence that we cannot explain by any other means - be it the moral void we perceive in the universe, the certainty of death, the mystery of the origin of things, the meaning of our own lives or the absence of meaning.

We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.

Julian spoke with the clear, unequivocal lucidity of madmen who have escaped the hypocrisy of having to abide by a reality that makes no sense.

Every work of art is aggressive, Isabella. And every artist's life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one's limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.

Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.

Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.

Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.