"If you don't like someone's story, write your own."

"The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place."

"While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary."

"Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself."

"There is no story that is not true, [...] The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."

"To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them."

"Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged."

"My weapon is literature"

"When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool."