Absence is to love as wind is to fire: it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.

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

If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot.

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

There are four types: the cretin, the imbecile, the stupid and the mad. Normality is a balanced mixture of all four.

I love the smell of book ink in the morning.

To survive, you must tell stories.

But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.

Reflecting on these complex relationships between reader and story, fiction and life, can constitute a form of therapy against the sleep of reason, which generates monsters.

Be weary of the selfish givers, those who do something for a hidden fee.

Horas non numero nisi serenas, ' 'I count - no - hours but - unclouded ones,

You're playing hookey for her? You met her, what, five minutes ago? And now she's what? Your girlfriend? Did you give her your varsity jacket?

Some of our greatest historical and artistic treasures we place with curators in museums

Some are born to sweet delight Some are born to endless night.

If you've got a gun law that criminals will obey, why not just turn it into a murder law that criminals will obey-then we won't have to worry about the gun part.

I always say that I'll have a go and see whether the poem works and if it does, then fine.

I am very fond of fresh air and royalties.

If I spend all my time being upset about having lost a job, then the next however many auditions I have are going to be useless.