The cemetery was vanity transmogrified into stone. Instead of growing more sensible in death, the inhabitants of the cemetery were sillier than they had been in life.

When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.

But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?

The longing for Paradise is man's longing not to be man.

I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.

Between the approximation of the idea and the precision of reality there was a small gap of the unimaginable, and it was this hiatus that gave him no rest.

Tomas did not realize at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.

Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

Our dreams prove that to imagine - to dream about things that have not happened - is among mankind's deepest needs.

Metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Life must not be lived only to make money.

You're terribly selfish, you know. I've loved you so long, and it was never dear or precious to you. I might as well have not loved you at all.

Loving you has been worse than an addiction to drugs. At least I don't have the drugs c r a w l i n g into my bed at night.

...you don’t fight fair against the devil, now do you?

one can never be sure whether it's good poetry or bad acid

Even more then long hours in the kitchen, fine meals require ingenious organization and experience which is a pleasure to acquire.

Books are slow, books are quiet. The Internet is fast and loud.

People need each other and think it is love. There's no hanging on to, or fencing in, of the other one when one loves.

On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar.

If we have a strength, it is in recognizing when we are operating well within our circle of competence and when we are approaching the perimeter.