One of the great fallacies of our time is that the Nazis rose to power because they imposed order on chaos. Precisely the opposite is true - they were successful because they imposed chaos on order. They tore up the commandments, they denied the super-ego, what you will. They said, "You may persecute the minority, you may kill, you may torture, you may couple and breed without love." They offered humanity all its great temptations. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one.

Most marriages recognize this paradox: Passion destroys passion; we want what puts an end to wanting what we want.

Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical.

The moon hung over the planet Earth, a dead thing over a dying thing.

Adulthood is not an age, but a stage of knowledge of self.

Being an atheist is a matter not of moral choice, but of human obligation.