“Never underestimate the collective stupidity of the masses.”

“Tom looked more and more like a rabbi. As is the way of men of character in provincial towns, he tended to become a collection of mannerisms, a caricature of himself.”

“She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity.”

“Dalam gelap ku bertanya bagaimana cinta itu melihat yang nyata sedangkan mata ini tak pernah terpejam. (Maybe the eye can misjudge but love will never be wrong).”

“There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is the quality of having to stare, of not getting the point at once. The longer you look at one object, the more of the world you see in it; and it's well to remember that the serious fiction writer always writes about the whole world.”

“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”

“She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.”