Whether there is such a thing as Reality, of which the various levels are only partial aspects, or whether there are only levels, is something that literature cannot decide. Literature recognizes rather the *reality of the levels.*

The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death.

Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.

A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

Sometimes one who thinks himself incomplete is merely young.

Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.

When I'm writing a book I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result.