We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.

The purpose of a story is to be an axe that breaks up the ice within us.

God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them.

I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.

Because of impatience we were driven out [of Paradise]; because of impatience we cannot return.

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write.