In Terezaโs eyes, books were the emblems of a secret brotherhood. For she had but a single weapon against the world of crudity surrounding her: the novels. She had read any number of them, from Fielding to Thomas Mann. They not only offered the possibility of an imaginary escape from a life she found unsatisfying; they also had a meaning for her as physical objects: she loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It had the same significance for her as an elegant cane from the dandy a century ago. It differentiated her from others.
Milan KunderaThe body was a cage, and inside that cage was something which looked, listened, feared, thought and marveled; that something, that remainder left over after the body had been accounted for, was the soul.
Milan KunderaA novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.
Milan KunderaThe novel is a territory where one does not make assertions; it is a territory of play and of hypotheses.
Milan Kundera