“The point is: have you ever noticed how we crush a cockroach without further worry and feel no remorse in spite of being in fact terminating a life? That's it. We do so because we don't identify ourselves with a cockroach. Because it's very diffent from us. [...] Thinking from that side, I suppose some people tend to do the same towards others. I mean, they see from distance those they don't identify with on the spot, do you get me? It's as if the stranger, who doesn't belong to the same group as we do, was seen as an inferior being... Almost a cockroach!”

“I look around and see that many — not all, but many — problems we've got could be solved if our culture simply fostered the habit of reading. Reading books of science, philosophy, history. Reading literature of quality, the sort that touches us because of a more profound reason, such as, for instance, because it's got something to say beyond all the futilities and trifles of life, even while depicting the ordinary in life, at the same time that it says it with style, in a unique, admirable manner. An original one. We are not a county of readers, notwithstanding. We are the country of football turned into a cult, of guile being ranked high as a cardinal virtue, of Carnival made for exportation. A country where there are more letters in political party acronyms than in all many of our politicians have written in a lifetime. A country where ethics has become a joke theme. Where democracy is but a ridiculous puppet theatre.Yes, I look around and see that many problems could be solved if we had the habit of reading. But I am not even sure whether there is someone reading these words.”

“NOTHING MAKES SENSE. Do not look for any sense in things. It is not there. It is you who ascribe it to what you live or get to know. A defeat or a victory is neither a message from the gods nor a trick of fate. Neither means anything — and, if they seem to, it is but an interpretation you yourself make of them —, inasmuch as things in themselves are only indifference and silence. So, do not waste your precious time in looking for signs everywhere around you. Try and interpret happenings, those which bleed and those which make you smile, as maturing experiences. Oh, yes, what is most important: live!”

“Real life doesn't grant us many of the more than useful possibilities people can come out with in fiction.”

“A questão é: você já reparou como nós esmagamos uma barata numa boa e não sentimos remorso nenhum, apesar de estarmos na realidade exterminando uma vida? Pois é. Fazemos isso porque não nos identificamos com a barata. Porque ela é muito diferente de nós. [...] Pensando por esse lado, acho que algumas pessoas às vezes tendem a fazer do mesmo jeito com relação a outras. Ou seja, elas veem com distanciamento aqueles com quem não se identificam logo de cara, entende? É como se o estranho, que não faz parte do mesmo grupo que nós, fosse visto como um ser inferior... Quase uma barata!”

“A vida real não nos concede muitas possibilidades mais do que úteis que as pessoas podem ter na ficção.”

“Ele me revelou um lado melhor do meu ser. Quer dizer, não falo apenas do talento para literatura. Refiro-me principalmente à sensibilidade, à liberdade para sentir intensamente e não ter mais vergonha disso. Falo de chorar quando a vontade vem, de fazer um gesto de carinho quando isso é tudo o que importa. Falo de ser humano quando isso significa conhecer nossos defeitos e limites, cientes de que nós somos sempre capazes de nos aprimorar, capazes de aprender a ser mais gente!”