A man should have two wives: one to love and one to sew on his buttons.

Your first realization when you become an important person is that all day and all night, whatever the circumstances, people want to hear you talk about yourself.

It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.

All my life, I've been frightened at the moment I sit down to write.

The more transparent the writing, the more visible the poetry.

In her final years she would still recall the trip that, with the perverse lucidity of nostalgia, became more and more recent in her memory.

Seeing him like this, dressed just for her in so patent a manner, she could not hold back the fiery blush that rose to her face. She was embarrassed when she greeted him, and he was more embarrassed by her embarrassment. The knowledge that they were behaving as if they were sweethearts was even more embarrassing, and the knowledge that they were both embarrassed embarrassed them so much that Captain Samaritano noticed it with a tremor of compassion.