He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging... This confers the tone and bearing of genuine reminiscences. He must not be afraid to return again and again to the same matter; to scatter it as one scatters earth, to turn it over as one turns over soil.

These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.

In the world's structure dream loosens individuality like a bad tooth.

You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps - his tastes, his interest, his habits.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text.

Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance - nothing more. But to lose oneself in a city - as one loses oneself in a forest - that calls for a quite different schooling. Then, signboard and street names, passers-by, roofs, kiosks, or bars must speak to the wanderer like a cracking twig under his feet in the forest.