In her presence I could dare everything: sincerity, emotion, pathos.

The novelist's ambition is not to do something better than his predecessors but to see what they did not see, say what they did not say.

Extremism means borders beyond which life ends, and a passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for death.

I understand you, and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind. I am too old to want to improve the world. I have told you what I think, and that is all. I shall remain your friend even if you act contrary to my convictions, and I shall help you even if I disagree with you.

The love between dog and man is idyllic, dogs were never expelled from paradise.

When graves are covered with stones, the dead can no longer get out. But the dead can't go out anyway! What difference does it make whether they're covered with soil or stones?

The border between good and evil is terribly fuzzy.