I don't want to promote my own image either. I don't like going on television or mixing in literary circles.

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.

You can really never give birth to anything in this world without solitude. Everything precious comes out of solitude.

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work I want to achieve it through not dying.

I don't approach my acting as just saying a few lines and then going off-screen. It's a craft. I really invest in trying to make it a craft.

Art takes nature as its model.

At home I have big vats of cabbage soup that I make to slim down.

I regret the passing of the studio system. I was very appreciative of it because I had no talent.

There is no peace without forgiveness.

Now you shall consider My love in the Blessed Sacrament. Here, I am entirely yours, soul, body and divinity, as your Bridegroom. You know what love demands: one thing only, reciprocity.

The world of your photography is limitless-just like your backyard.

The beginner should not be discouraged if he finds he does not have the prerequisites for reading the prerequisites.