Yes, the essence of every love is a child, and it makes no difference at all whether it has ever actually been conceived or born. In the algebra of love a child is the symbol of the magical sum of two beings.

Anyone who thinks that the Communist regimes of Central Europe are exclusively the work of criminals is overlooking a basic truth: The criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise. They defended that road so valiantly that they were forced to execute many people. Later it became clear that there was no paradise, that the enthusiasts were therefore murderers.

You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.

The moment Kafka attracts more attenetion than Joseph K., Kafka's posthumous death begins.

I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn't know who I was or wanted to be.

The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.

Forgive me," he went on. "For a long time I have had the peculiar habit of not arriving but appearing.