Beauty is, in some way, boring. Even if its concept changes through the ages... a beautiful object must always follow certain rules. A beautiful nose shouldn't be longer than that or shorter than that, on the contrary, an ugly nose can be as long as the one of Pinocchio, or as big as the trunk of an elephant, or like the beak of an eagle, and so ugliness is unpredictable, and offers an infinite range of possibility. Beauty is finite, ugliness is infinite like God.
Umberto EcoWriting doesn't mean necessarily putting words on a sheet of paper. You can write a chapter while walking or eating.
Umberto EcoIs it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy?
Umberto EcoThey [the Templars] had read Avicenna, and they were not ignorant, like the Europeans. How could you live alongside a tolerant, mystical, libertine culture for two centuries without succumbing to its allure, particularly when you compared it to Western culture, which was crude, vulgar, barbaric, and Germanic?
Umberto EcoOur most noted satirists are true columnists and their opinions can be worth more than any well-documented exposé.
Umberto Eco