People fascinated by the idea of progress never suspect that every step forward is also a step on the way to the end.

Happiness is the longing for repetition.

Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.

In Tereza's eyes, books were the emblems of a secret brotherhood

The characters in my novels are my own unrealised possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.

Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.

No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad.