"Besides, I simply had to get back to my books right away, because the company of most people, once the predictable events have taken their course, does not inspire conversation on my part."

“Every period in history has it's own punishments, and ours has a multitude.”

“We will feel the draft blowing through the cracks in the structure of causality.”

“I had breezed home on the wings of five gins.”

“From the number of self-murderers he had known-you had to put it that way, for the fact that someone died rounded off your knowledge of that person, if only because he or she could no longer present you with surprises-he was able to conclude that his circle of acquaintance must consist of a thousand people. If he were to invite all these voluntary dead to tea, two boxes of cream cakes from Berkhof's would scarcely suffice.”

“Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases.”

“It is a peculiarity of time that in retrospect it appears so compact, an indivisible solid object, a dish with only one smell and one flavor.”