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

As a scholar I am interested in the philosophy of language, semiotics, call it what you want, and one of the main features of the human language is the possibility of lying.

Better reality than a dream: if something is real, then it's real and you're not to blame.

Semiotics 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.

Monsters exist because they are part of the divine plan, and in the horrible features of those same monsters the power of the creator is revealed.

If Bush had read all the documents about the Russians and British in Afghanistan in the 19th century, he would have not done what he did in the 21st. He would have understood how difficult it was to control this territory. He probably didn't read them.

It takes a little time, but the pleasures of cooking begin before the pleasures of the palate, and preparing means anticipating.