Doubts are like stains on a shirt. I like shirts with stains, because when I'm given a shirt that's too clean, one that's completely white, I immediately start having doubts.

I prefer insomnia to anaesthesia.

I vividly remember the stories my grandfather told me about the carnage of the First World War, which people tend to forget was one of the worst massacres in human history.

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.

I live quietly at home among my family and friends.

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.

People with lots of doubts sometimes find life more oppressive and exhausting than others, but they're more energetic - they aren't robots.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

There are some fundamental values it's impossible to be wrong about.

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.

Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas.

There is no great person in history who gained mastery in a particular skill without first investing so much time into perfecting that skill.

If an opportunity comes dressed in trouble’s apparel, do not scorn it.

She's pretty in a familiar kind of way that I forget to notice, until someone else notices and I'm reminded.

People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.

Dirt is matter in the wrong place.

I got my job through the New York Times. [Written underneath:] So did Castro.

If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an experience of underinvolvement, of detachment.

What rings true is that everything we grow through in life will work out for our good.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am really into hair. I'm a real girly girl and love doing my hair and experimenting with different styles.