Umberto Eco, Postscript To The Name Of The Rose Quotes
When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.
Is it possible to say "It was a beautiful morning at the end of November" without feeling like Snoopy?
The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.
I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story.
Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.
I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.
The fine thing about pacts with the devil is that when you sign them you are well aware of their conditions. Otherwise, why would you be recompensed with hell?
After all, the fundamental question of philosophy (like that of psychoanalysis) is the same as the question of the detective novel: who is guilty?