The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character.

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.

The love for nature is the well-spring of life.

Why are you messing with the fantasy? We know about the reality. Don't ruin the fantasy, OK?

Sri Krishna refers, of course, to this world as a joyless, transient world. Obviously, he's never been to Disneyland.

To come upon love without seeking it is the only way to find it.

I enjoy the competition and whatever it takes throughout the competition, I will do it.

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.

Everyone has a right to rest so as not to injure themselves.

If you put a s infront of hitman, you have my exact thoughts on Bret Hart

The more youth begin to recognize that they have a voice, the more change is possible.

A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by, and then his state Empties itself, as dot an inland brook Into the main of waters.