To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.

It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music.

Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.

...the majority of people cannot endure the bareness and futility of their lives unless they have some ardent dedication, or some passionate pursuit in which they can lose themselves.