The most interesting letters I received about 'The Name of the Rose' were from people in the Midwest that maybe didn't understand exactly, but wanted to understand more and who were excited by this picture of a world which was not their own.

I have to admit that I only read War and Peace when I was 40. But I knew the basics before then.

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

It is obvious that the newspaper produces the opinion of the readers.

Our most noted satirists are true columnists and their opinions can be worth more than any well-documented exposé.

Simple mechanisms do not love.

I believe all sin, love, glory are this: when you slide down the knotted sheets, escaping from Gestapo headquarters, and she hugs you, there, suspended, and she whispers that she's always dreamed of you. The rest is just sex, copulation, the perpetuation of the vile species.