“With thought, patience, and discrimination, book passion becomes the signature of a person's character. ”

“Marin Marian-Bălaşa (full name) is the same as Marin Marian and/or Marin B. Marian. He authored articles, essays, and books under all these signatures. initially, the differentiation was meant to discriminate between various specializations; lately, he dropped the first (MM and MBM) ones.”

“I do note with interest that old women in my books become young women on the covers... this is discrimination against the chronologically gifted.”

“A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name. ”

“If you want to discover the true character of a person, you have only to observe what they are passionate about.”

“It's at moments like these in a game that the essentials of his character are exposed: narrow, ineffectual, stupid—and morally so. The game becomes an extended metaphor of character defect. Every error he makes is so profoundly, so irritatingly typical of himself, instantly familiar, like a signature, like a tissue scar or some deformation in a private place.”