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

The goals we pursue are always veiled. A girl who longs for marriage longs for something she knows nothing about. The boy who hankers after fame has no idea what fame is. The thing that gives our every move its meaning is always totally unknown to us.

Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.

No matter how much we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition.

Only after a while did it occur to me (in spite of the chilly silence which surrounded me) that my story was not of the tragic sort, but rather of the comic variety. At any rate that afforded me some comfort.

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent.

But what had happened, had happened, and it was no longer possible to right anything.