nothing in this world was more difficult than love.

You have to have spent the night at sea, sitting in a life raft and looking at your watch, to know that the night is immeasurably longer than the day.

A famous writer who wants to continue writing has to be constantly defending himself against fame.

There is always something left to love.

She always had a headache, or it was too hot, always, or she pretended to be asleep, or she had her period again, her period, always her period. So much so that Dr. Urbino had dared to say in class, only for the relief of unburdening himself without confession, that after ten years of marriage women had their periods as often as threes times a week.

The only Virgos left in the world are people like you who were born in August.

There had never been a death so foretold.