Every new book I read comes to be a part of that overall and unitary book that is the sum of my readings...if you need little to set the imagination going, I require even less: the promise of reading is enough.

seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space

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

One reads alone, even in another's presence.

Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.

You're the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything. There are plenty, younger than you or less young, who live in the expectation of extraordinary experiences: from books, from people, from journeys, from events, from what tomorrow has in store. But not you. You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst.

In politics, as in every other sphere of life, there are two important principles for a man of any sense: don't cherish too many illusions, and never stop believing that every little bit helps.