A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.

My grandfather had a particularly important influence on my life, even though I didn't visit him often, since he lived about three miles out of town and he died when I was six. He was remarkably curious about the world, and he read lots of books.

Conspiracies do exist. Probably in this moment in New York there is an economic group making a conspiracy in order to buy three banks. But if they succeed, they are immediately discovered.

One can be a great poet and be politically stupid.

Is it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy?

The good of a book lies in its being read.

Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text.