The stronger their nostalgia, the emptier of recollections it becomes. - Milan Kundera

Tereza knew what happens during the moment love is born: the woman cannot resist the voice calling forth her terrified soul; the man cannot resist the woman whose soul thus responds to his voice.

Sometimes (more in sport than from real concern) I defended myself against the charge of individualism and demanded from the others proof that I was an individualist. For want of concrete evidence they would say: “ It´s the way you behave.” “How do I behave?” “You have a strange kind of smile”. “And If I do? That´s how I express my joy.”
“No, your smile is though you were thinking to yourself.

A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality.