Almost Kien was tempted to believe in happiness, that contemptible life-goal of illiterates. If it came of itself, without being hunted for, if you did not hold it fast by force and treated it with a certain condescension, it was permissible to endure its presence for a few days

A head full of stars, just not in constellation yet.

Death is a scandal. The machine is functioning, we are all hostages

Everything one records contains a grain of hope, no matter how deeply it may come from despair.

Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child. They consider it necessary, but they also enjoy it. The children very quickly figure it out and then practice deception themselves.

I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me; the old solutions are falling apart; nothing has been done yet with the new ones. So I begin, everywhere at once, as if I had a century ahead of me.

Of all the words in all languages I know, the greatest concentration is in the English word I.