“Martin, at my age, eroticism is reduced to enjoying caramel custard and looking at widows' necks.”

“He was rather clumsy and shy and looked as if he'd spent the last ten years of his life locked up in a library - hardly the kind of man any girl your age dreams of ...”

“Do you know what religion is, Martin, my friend?-I can barely remember Lord's Prayer.-A beautiful and well-crafted prayer. Poetry aside, a religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends,myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values , and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.”

“Everything is a tale, Martin. What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.”

“We set off towards the square, where a knot of old folks hovered around the local pigeon community, their lives reduced to a ritual of spreading crumbs and waiting.”

“Meinem Eindruck nach ist der arme Martin nicht einmal in der Lage, seine Schugröße niederzuschreiben, und verharrt meistens in einer Art von Fegefeuer, das er in seinem eigenen Kopf aufgebaut hat, wo ihn Gewissensbisse und Schmerz bei lebendigem Leib aufzehren.”

“That's what happens when people reach old age; nobody remembers they've been bastards too.”