Being a professional philosopher is, I would say, feeling natural to think about small and great problems. It is the only pleasure.

When I went from being an academic to being a member of the community of writers some of my former colleagues did look on me with a certain resentment.

The comic is the perception of the opposite; humor is the feeling of it.

For 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.

Sometimes my characters are not myself.

You must overcome any shyness and have a conversation with the librarian, because he can offer you reliable advice that will save you much time. You must consider that the librarian (if not overworked or neurotic) is happy when he can demonstrate two things: the quality of his memory and erudition and the richness of his library, especially if it is small. The more isolated and disregarded the library, the more the librarian is consumed with sorrow for its underestimation. A person who asks for help makes the librarian happy.

I have lost the freedom of not having an opinion.