On the steps is a machine-gun ready for action. The square is empty; only the streets that lead into it are jammed with people. It would be madness to go farther - the machine-gun is covering the square.

We have our dreams because without them we could not bear the truth.

Strange how complicated we can make things just to avoid showing what we feel!

Everyone saves someone at least once. Just as he kills someone at least once. Even though he may not know it.

I did not want to think so much about her. I wanted to take her as an unexpected, delightful gift, that had come and would go again — nothing more. I meant not to give room to the thought that it could ever be more. I knew too well that all love has the desire for eternity and that therein lies its eternal torment. Nothing lasts. Nothing.

You may turn into an archangel, a fool, or a criminal—no one will see it. But when a button is missing—everyone sees that.

Someone said to me once that a cigarette at the right moment is better than all the ideals in the world.