When I was a little boy in short pants, I dreamed about a miraculous ointment that would make me invisible. Then I became an adult, began to write, and wanted to be successful. Now I'm successful and would like to have the ointment that would make me invisible.

The eye... the point where a person's identity is concentrated.

Great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors.

I am not in favor of imposing happiness on people. Everyone has a right to his bad wine, to his stupidity, and to his dirty fingernails.

She is sadder and sadder, and for a man there is no balm more soothing than the sadness he has caused a woman.

But which was the real me? Let me be perfectly honest: I was a man of many faces. (p.33)

The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted.