When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

The most interesting letters I received about 'The Name of the Rose' were from people in the Midwest that maybe didn't understand exactly, but wanted to understand more and who were excited by this picture of a world which was not their own.

but I had also learned that freedom of speech means freedom from rhetoric.

I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.

The truth is a young maiden as modest as she is beautiful, and therefore she is always seen cloaked.

I have lost the freedom of not having an opinion.