For someone like me and my generation, you had to speak French to be sophisticated, you had to be lighter-skinned.

I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a deep need to belong? Are we simply pack animals desperately trying to pretend we are not?

I believe one has to escape oneself to discover oneself.

...What happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens. Events matter little, only stories of events affect us.

I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal segment of it is reality.

The eye always fills in the imperfections.

I long ago abandoned myself to a blind lust for the written word. Literature is my sandbox. In it I play, build my forts and castles, spend glorious time.

What is the purpose of a city if not to grant the greatest of gifts, anonymity?

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who want to be desired, and people who want to be desired so much that they pretend they don't.

I'm an atheist, a devout atheist, but I find religion fascinating. Primarily because of cultural references, as in: This is what we grew up with. Both on a personal level and a collective level.

Fate would never permit happiness to a man of such talent-a content poet is a mediocre one, a happy poet is insufferable.

Don't stress over being yourself. The act of being yourself is simply to be. Be without changing yourself for others. Simply be.

Men prefer sweet lies to unpleasant truths

Men respect the silent; they despise the garrulous. - Marius

Democracies die behind closed doors.

Your life can only be as free as your perception of it

I don't think any human being is truly free. We're so tethered to our own insecurities and hampered by our fears and our prejudices. I think it's human nature that we're never going to be free.

Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do.

English is not the primary language for universities in China, Korea, and Japan, but they are being evaluated on the basis of publications in English and courses taught in English.

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.

Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one.