Since the insignificance of all things is our lot, we should not bear it as an affliction but learn to enjoy it.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

As you live out your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom.

But deep down she said to herself, Franz maybe strong, but his strength is directed outward; when it comes to the people he lives with, the people he's loves, he's weak. Franz's weakness is called goodness. Franz would never give Sabina orders. He would never command her, as Tomas had, to lay the mirror on the floor and walk back and forth on it naked. Not that he lacks sensuality; he simply lacks the strength to give orders. There are things that can be accomplished only by violence. Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

Disgust at having to talk about oneself is what distinguishes novelistic talent from lyric talent.

Modern stupidity means not ignorance but the nonthought of received ideas

A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.