The contradiction [trying to use Russian model to reshape Italy] grew to such an extent that I felt totally cut off from the communist world and, in the end, from politics. That was fortunate. The idea of putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.

There is no such thing as closure, and it wouldn't be worth having if it were available, because all it would mean is that something that was quite an important part of you had gone numb.

Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there

Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.

Oh child, your language is so utterly simple and limited that it has the affect of extreme complication. -Aunt Beast

War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.