All the theories of conspiracy were always a way to escape our responsibilities. It is a very important kind of social sickness by which we avoid recognizing reality such as it is and avoid our responsibilities.

All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.

I have a good memory. But I would be interested in memory even if I had a bad memory, because I believe that memory is our soul. If we lose our memory completely, we are without a soul.

Whoever reflects on four things I would be better if he were never born: that which is above, that which is below, that which is before, that which is after.

American coffee can be a pale solution served at a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade in plastic thermos cups, usually obligatory in railroad stations for purposes of genocide, whereas coffee made with an American percolator, such as you find in private houses or in humble luncheonettes, served with eggs and bacon, is delicious, fragrant, goes down like pure spring water, and afterwards causes severe palpitations, because one cup contains more caffeine than four espressos.

I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it.

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.