Art is hard for a puritan to understand.

Believing: it means believing in our own lies. And I can say that I am grateful that I got this lesson very early.

It's dangerous to watch staggering butterflies. They have a plan but it has no meaning.

Lies that do not hurt, which are different from lies that protect oneself or hurt another person. That is not my business. But the truth is mostly very boring, and you can help it along with lies. There is no harm in that.

I was assigned to the Waffen-SS but was never involved in any crime. Besides, I always felt the need to write about my experiences in a larger context one day. This has only developed recently, now that I have overcome my inner aversion to writing an autobiography in the first place, specifically one having to do with my younger years.

We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.

In general, I agree with Jacob Grimm and feel that we ought to permit changes and uncontrolled growth in language. Even though that also allows potentially threatening new words to develop, language needs the chance to constantly renew itself.