Love is a continual interrogation. I don’t know of a better definition of love.

Any new possibility that existence acquires, even the least likely, transforms everything about existence.

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

The longing for Paradise is man's longing not to be man.

Listening to a news broadcast is like smoking a cigarette and crushing the butt in the ashtray.

The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai Desert made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten.

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.