Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.

Whoever debases others is debasing himself.

The writer's greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.

The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through.

I can't be a pessimist, because I am alive.

The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.

It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your performance and survival-you do not exist. It is hard to imitate a people whose existence appears, mainly, to be made tolerable by their bottomless gratitude that they are not, thank heaven, you.