Authors frequently say things they are unaware of; only after they have gotten the reactions of their readers do they discover what they have said
Umberto EcoAn idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.
Umberto EcoSemiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth: it cannot in fact be used "to tell" at all.
Umberto EcoFor what I saw at the abbey then (and will now recount) caused me to think that often inquisitors create heretics. And not only in the sense that they imagine heretics where these do not exist, but also that inquisitors repress the heretical putrefaction so vehemently that many are driven to share in it, in their hatred for the judges. Truly, a circle conceived by the Devil. God preserve us.
Umberto Eco