When my father was arrested, we didn't know where they had him. My mother found him at the house of torture. It was called Villa Triste.

The moment you give up your principles, and your values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period.

I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger.

Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon.

It brought back to mind the injustice I spoke of, the solitude that oppresses women intent on defending their own destinies, their own dreams, their own mistakes.

I met Indira Gandhi in her office in the government palace. The same office that had been her father's - large, cold and plain. She was sitting, small and slender, behind a bare desk. When I entered, she got up and came forward to give me her hand, then sat down again and cut the preliminaries short by fixing me with a gaze that meant: Go ahead with the first question, don't waste time, I really have no time to waste.

I am disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of many Europeans.