Rather than regret for what I have written, I feel regret for what I shall never be able to read..

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 melanc….

There are some fundamental values it's impossible to be wrong about..

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 mass….

personally I don't trust literature that soothes people's consciences..

Xenophobia manifests itself especially against civilizations and cultures that are weak because they lack economic resources, means of subsistence or….

I've always been drawn to tormented people full of contradictions..

I don't go for people who lead full and satisfying lives..

Philosophy appears to concern itself only with the truth, but perhaps expresses only fantasies, while literature appears to concern itself only with ….

My job is to look at what politics is doing, not be a politician myself..

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection..

I don't have any doubts either about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Perhaps some more should be added to the list, but I don't have the s….

No, I'm happy to go on living the life I've chosen. I'm a university teacher and I like my job..

It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world..

My books are about losers, about people who've lost their way and are engaged in a search..

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

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance..

Literature is my life of course, but from an ontological point of view. From an existential point of view, I like being a teacher..

Like a blazing comet, I've traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I've been a man, a woman, an o….

Doubts are like stains on a shirt. I like shirts with stains, because when I'm given a shirt that's too clean, one that's completely white, I immedia….

A l'intérieur de ce corps vivait l'âme d'une intellectuelle et poète dont personne n'avait le soupçon. Within this body lived the soul of an intellec….