Seeing is limited by two borders: Strong light, which blinds, and total darkness.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

Metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with.

We all reject out of hand the idea that the love of our life may be something light or weightless; we presume our love is what must be, that without it our life would no longer be the same; we feel that Beethoven himself, gloomy and awe-inspiring, is playing the “Es muss sein!” to our own great love.

Our historical experience teaches us that men imitate one another, that their attitudes are statistically calculable, their opinions manipulable, and that man is therefore less an individual (a subject) than an element in a mass.

I think I am a much better actor than I have allowed myself to be.

Physical love is unthinkable without violence.