"We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
"Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
"We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt."
"May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air."
"Evil does not exist; once you have crossed the threshold, all is good. Once in another world, you must hold your tongue."
"Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me."