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

To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead.

I am not worthy of my suffering. A great sentence. It suggests not only that suffering is the basis of the self, its sole indubitable ontological proof, but also that it is the one feeling most worthy of respect; the value of all values.

Children are the future, because mankind is moving more and more towards infancy.

Looking out over the courtyard at the dirty walls, he realized he had no idea whether it was hysteria or love.

The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters.

When a private talk over a bottle of wine is broadcast on the radio, what can it mean but that the world is turning into a concentration camp?