The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.

One of them, for example, which will probably haunt me more than any other is the problem of communication.

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.

I adore life but I don't fear death. I just prefer to die as late as possible.

I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.

I saw Mussolini tirelessly contemplate a parade of thousands of young men.

Trotsky rises to give me his hand, then sits at his desk, gently allowing his regard to light on my person.

It was night and I could see a large and calm lake, reflecting the moon. Black mountains rose around it. I arrived from between two of these mountains, I looked at the lake and the moon, and that was it, nothing else happened.

Of course, I also gave him the ineffable pleasures of pipe smoking. And no children, because when this character was created I did not yet have the four children I later had. I must add I also gave him a certain taste for food.

The fact that we are I don't know how many millions of people, yet communication, complete communication, is completely impossible between two of those people, is to me one of the biggest tragic themes in the world.

You often feel that your prayers scarcely reach the ceiling; but, oh, get into this humble spirit by considering how good the Lord is, and how evil you all are, and then prayer will mount on wings of faith to heaven.

Our holiness is an effect, not a cause; so long as our eyes are on our own personal whiteness as an end in itself, the thing breaks down.

I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself.

No man can in any measure resemble the scripture saints.

Our calling is not primarily to be holy women, but to work for God and for others with Him.

The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears.

Feast of the Holy Cross Does not every man feel, that there is corruption enough within him to drive him to the commission of the greatest enormities, and eternally to destroy his soul?

With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God.