A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.

Everything, even herself, was now unbearable to her. She wished that, taking wing like a bird, she could fly somewhere, far away to regions of purity, and there grow young again.

The morality of art is in its very beauty.

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.

Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles.

What an awful thing life is, isn’t it? It’s like soup with lots of hairs floating on the surface. You have to eat it nevertheless.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.