The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become

The very beginning of Genesis tells us that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse. There is no certainty that God actually did grant man dominion over other creatures. What seems more likely, in fact, is that man invented God to sanctify the dominion that he usurped for himself over the cow and the horse.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Radio... force-feeds us music... everywhere and all the time... sewage-water music in which music is dying.

...no one can do a thing about feelings, they exist and there's no way to censor them. We can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it.

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

The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted.