A source of permanent, accessible pleasure, our genitals exist. The god who created our misfortune, who made us short-lived, vain and cruel, has also provided this form of meagre compensation. If we couldn't have sex from time to time, what would life be? A futile struggle against joints that stiffen, caries that form. All of which, moreover, is as uninteresting as humanly possible - the collagen which makes muscles stiffen, the appearance of microbic cavities in the gums.

An entire life spent reading would have fulfilled my every desire; I already knew that at the age of seven. The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best. Such a life has not been granted me.

The Americans are completely stupid. The intellectual level in any single European country is higher than in America.

Tenderness is a deeper instinct than seduction, which is why it is so hard to give up hope.

Not having anything around to read is dangerous: you have to content yourself with life itself, and that can lead you to take risks.

The press may hate me, and I know my battles with them are not over, but that doesn't matter.

Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.