The novel is a territory where one does not make assertions; it is a territory of play and of hypotheses.

You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.

Yes, the essence of every love is a child, and it makes no difference at all whether it has ever actually been conceived or born. In the algebra of love a child is the symbol of the magical sum of two beings.

Is a novel anything but a trap set for a hero?

In the mind of a woman for whom no place is home the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable.

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

I think, therefore I am' is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches.