Italy is a country which is willing to submit itself to the worst governments. It is, as we know, a country ruled by disorder, cynicism, incompetence and confusion. Nevertheless we are aware of intelligence circulating in the streets like a vivid bloodstream.

But the English do not know what surprise is. No one ever turns his head to look at anyone else in the street.

But that was the best time of my life, and only now that it has gone from me forever -- only now do I realize it.

I think of a writer as a river: you reflect what passes before you.

Every day silence harvests its victims. Silence is a mortal illness.

The English have no imagination: and yet they do show imagination in two things - two only. In the evening-clothes worn by old ladies, and in their cafés.

The true defense against wealth is not a fear of wealth - of its fragility and of the vicious consequences that it can bring - the true defense against wealth is an indifference to money.