The more one was lost in unfamiliar quarters of distant cities, the more one understood the other cities he had crossed to arrive there.

The soul is often in the surface, and the importance of 'depth' is overestimated.

It is only after you have come to know the surface of things ... that you can venture to seek what is underneath. But the surface of things is inexhaustible.

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears.

The novels that attract me most are those that create an illusion of transparency around a knot of human relationships as obscure, cruel, and perverse as possible.

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.

In general confusion youth recognizes itself and rejoices.