The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

Memory does not make films, it makes photographs.

The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order.

Necessity, weight, and value are three concepts inextricably bound: only necessity is heavy, and only what is heavy has value.

Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.

For existential mathematics, which does not exist, would probably propose this equation: the value of coincidence equals the degree of its improbability.

From tender youth we are told by father and teacher that betrayal is the most heinous offence imaginable. But what is betrayal?…Betrayal means breaking ranks and breaking off into the unknown. Sabina knew of nothing more magnificent than going off into the unknown.