But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.

The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.

Beauty has never been absolute and immutable but has taken on different aspects depending on the historical period and the country

The wise man does not discriminate; he gathers all the shreds of light, from wherever they may come.

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

If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity.

I started to work in television for three or four years, in 1954. There was one channel of television, black and white. But it could be entertaining and educational. During the evening they showed important plays, opera or Shakespeare's tragedies.