من يعش في الغربة يمشِ في فضاء خاوٍ فوق الأرض مجردًا من شبكة الرعاية التي تحيط بها، كل كائن بشري، بلاده الأم حيث توجد عائلته وزملائه وأصدقاؤه، وحيث يستطي… - Milan Kundera

To take seriously something so unserious means to lose all one's own seriousness

"To laugh is to live profoundly... The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness, "that delectable trance of happiness, that ultimate peak of delight. Laughter of delight, delight of laughter... it is an expression of being rejoicing at being...

He looks at Mama out of the corner of his eye, again surprised by how little she is. As if all of her life has been a slow process of shrinkage.
But just what is that shrinkage?
Is it the real shrinkage of a person abandoning his adult dimensions and starting on the long journey through old age and death toward distances where there is only a nothingness without dimension?