But laughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh.

Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another.

I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.

The followers must feel besieged.

[In my writing] I know that I have made a caricature out of [others' academic] theories [but] I think that caricatures are frequently good portraits.

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.

Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.