“extremes mean borders beyond which life ends…and a passion for extremism is a veiled longing for death.”

“Living for Sabina meant seeing. Seeing is limited by two borders: strong light, which blinds, and total darkness. Perhaps that was what motivated Sabina's distaste for all extremism. Extremes mean borders beyond which life ends, and a passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for death.”

“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch.”

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”

“Bacon's portraits are an interrogation on the limits of the self. Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself? To what degree of distortion does a beloved person still remain a beloved person? For how long does a cherished face growing remote through illness, through madness, through hatred, through death still remain recognizable? Where is the border beyond which a self ceases to be a self?”

“Für Sabina bedeutet Leben Sehen. Das Sehen wird durch zwei Pole begrenzt: das grelle, blendende Licht und das absolute Dunkel. […] Extreme markieren Grenzen, hinter denen das Leben zu ende geht, und die Leidenschaft für Extreme, in der Kunst wie in der Politik, ist eine verschleierte Todessehnsucht.”

“The longing for order is at the same time a longing for death, because life is an incessant disruption of order.”