The only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other.

In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty.

I am not in favor of imposing happiness on people. Everyone has a right to his bad wine, to his stupidity, and to his dirty fingernails.

Man reckons with immortality, and forgets to reckon with death.

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

Disgust at having to talk about oneself is what distinguishes novelistic talent from lyric talent.

For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?