“One must seek another certitude beyond the world, beyond the homeland; one must refuse to join the chorus of the demoniacal and create one’s own homeland, one’s own world, outside the present time.”

“The world existed for me only in relationship to you.”

“A new world suddenly opened up on the printed page before me, the words moved vigorously towards me as if they had been seeking me for centuries...”

“But you wouldn’t believe what a dead finger does to a living hand.”

“The woman has a dangerous decision to confront, whether she will live her own life, or that of her children, whether she will be a woman first or a mother first.”

“had he been only a hardworking craftsman all his life, fitting colours together as a labourer constructs a building out of stones?”

“the soul cannot remain at peace when the world beyond is in uproar.”

“You don't run amok for long with impunity, you're bound to be struck down in the end...”

“Het was fantastisch te leven in deze stad die gastvrij alles wat vreemd was opnam en zich graag gaf,”

“I wanted to go back over what I had so fleetingly experienced step by step, relishing in retrospect by virtue of that magical self-deception we call memory.”

“Whether we do it or not, we’ll have to see—but still, just to have an idea, to think it through, work it out, and calculate the alternatives down to the ultimate consequences, that’ll be a pleasure I’d never expected to have.”

“It is my opinion that you should lend yourself to others and give yourself only to yourself.”

“the beauty of the creative gesture is wild, unwilling and painful.”

“great creative gifts do not mean fulness and giving out of abundance. On the contrary the expression is that of one who seeks help and strives to emancipate himself.”