I am not on Facebook and on Twitter because the purpose of my life is to avoid messages. I receive too many messages from the world, and so I try to avoid that.

The French, the Italians, the Germans, the Spanish and the English have spent centuries killing each other.

Naturally, everything depends on one's background books and on what one is looking for.

A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.

"You cannot believe what you are saying." "Well, no. Hardly ever. But the philosopher is like the poet. The latter composes ideal letters for an ideal nymph, only to plumb with his words the depths of passion. The philosopher tests the coldness of his gaze, to see how far he can undermine the fortress of bigotry."

When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.

Deciding what is being talked about is a kind of interpretive bet.