emotion is first of all and in principle an accident

Ah! How I hate the crimes of the new generation: they are dry and sterile as darnel.

Be quiet! Anyone can spit in my face, and call me a criminal and a prostitute. But no one has the right to judge my remorse.

Torture is senseless violence, born in fear... torture costs human lives but does not save them. We would almost be too lucky if these crimes were the work of savages: the truth is that torture makes torturers.

For common minds have an ugly ability to perceive in the deepest and richest saying nothing but their own everyday opinion.

I know. I know that I shall never again meet anything or anybody who will inspire me with passion. You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it. I know I'll never jump again.

This [service to oppressed] is the writer's task, and, if he fulfills it as he should, he acquires no merit from it.