“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”

“A truth should exist, it should not be used like this. If I love you is that a fact or a weapon?”

“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”

“What you don’t know won’t hurt you. A dubious maxim: sometimes what you don’t know can hurt you very much.”

“There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.”

“Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she's actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.”

“Time: old cold time, old sorrow, settling down in layers like silt in a pond.”

“Perhaps they were looking for passion; perhaps they delved into this book as into a mysterious parcel - a gift box at the bottom of which, hidden in layers of rustling tissue paper, lay some...”

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusin...”