Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future.

We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both. What is a life if not a series of negotiations between the old and the new?"

[Speech upon being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]

What pornographic literature does is precisely to drive a wedge between one's existence as a sexual being - while in ordinary life a healthy person is one who prevents such a gap from opening up

The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes. It is equivalent to a sense of abusing the present.

The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects /making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.

It's a pleasure to share one's memories. Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe /though we didn't know it at the time. We know it now. Because it's in the past; because we have survived.