For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received.

The least stupid question a man asks in his lifetime is not: Is there a God and is He a god or a devil? But: Brother, why are you killing me?

Speaking the truth, once you have started it, is too exhilarating to draw back.

Language is memory and metaphor.

Lord, if there is a heartache Vienna cannot cure I hope never to feel it. I came home cured of everything except Vienna.

Critics have been amusing themselves for a long time by auscultating fiction for signs of heart failure.

In Europe, war is a disease which has been in the family for generations: no one is surprised when it makes another leap. Even the patient only attends to it with part of his mind.