One situation – maybe one alone – could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

How easy it was to lie when one had to lie!

He liked the fact that Venice had no cars. It made the city human. The streets were like veins, he thought, and the people were the blood, circulating everywhere.

This is what I like, sitting at a table and watching people go by. It does something to your outlook on life. The Anglo-Saxons make a great mistake not staring at people from a sidewalk table.

I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial.

Dusk was falling quickly. It was just after 7 P.M., and the month was October.