Александрийский квартет. В двух томах

‘We say that once Lucifer had good intentions, a change of heart. He decided to perform a good act for a change — just one. So hell was born on earth, and they named it Soviet Russia.’

And then, like all the inexperienced lovers since the world began, he was not content to let things be; he must explore and evaluate them in his conscious mind.

Lovers can find nothing to say to each other that has not been said and unsaid a thousand times over. Kisses were invented to translate such nothings into wounds.

At first ...we seek to supplement the emptiness of our individuality through love, and for a brief moment enjoy the illusion of completeness. But it is only an illusion. For
this strange creature, which we thought would join us to the body of the world, succeeds at last in separating us most thoroughly from it. Love joins and then divides. How else would we be growing?

The Mediterranean is an absurdly small sea; the length and
greatness of its history makes us dream it larger than it is.

A diary is the last place to go if you wish to seek the truth about a person.

Somewhere in the heart of experience there is an order and a coherence which we might surprise if we were attentive enough, loving enough, or patient enough. Will there be time?

To the Cartesian proposition: “I think, therefore I am”, he opposed his own, which must have gone something like this: “I imagine, therefore I belong and am free”.

Yet one touch of humour would have saved him from such dreadful comprehensive suffering. It is easy to criticise, I know. I know.

Работа — единственная приемлемая для художника форма общения с современниками, поскольку истинных друзей он ищет среди мертвых либо нерожденных. Потому художник и политика суть вещи несовместимые, это не его дело.