and the two of them loved each other for a long time in silence without making love again.

He said that people who loved [animals] to excess were capable of the worst cruelties toward human beings. He said that dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, that peacocks were heralds of death, that macaws were simply decorative annoyances, that rabbits fomented greed, that monkeys carried the fever of lust, and that roosters were damned because they had been complicit in the three denials of Christ.

I don't have a method. All I do is read a lot, think a lot, and rewrite constantly. It's not a scientific thing.

Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it.

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

Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.

He governed as if he felt predestined to never die