Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

A writer always begins by being too complicated—he’s playing at several games at once.

...notai che le armature di ferro di plaza Costituciòn avevno cambiato non so quale pubblicità di sigarette; il fatto mi dispiacque, perché compresi che l'incessante e vasto universo già si separava da lei e che quel mutamento era il primo di una serie infinita.

I owe my first inkling of the problem of infinity to a large biscuit tin that was a source of vertiginous mystery during my childhood.

But let no one imagine that we were mere ascetics. There is no more complex pleasure than thought, and it was to thought that we delivered ourselves over.

I think—the hero observes that nothing is so frightening as a labyrinth with no center.