Schneider's characters, like Kundera's, are sentient and sophisticated figures at a time when the constraints of Communist rule persist but its energy has entirely vanished.

A prettiness mummified by years of chalk dust.

In the middle of the silence in a writer's house lies an invalid: the book being worked on.

Words are the legs of the mind; they bear it about, carry It from point to point, bed it down at night, and keep it off the ground and out of the marsh and mists.

Fully stripped down, an onion is a pile of scattered layers; it has no center.

Books open the doors that others have closed on you.

We know how to read traffic lights, but what don't you know how to read spiritual signs?

Be wise. Be brave. Be tricky.

Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others.

It had need to bee A wylie mouse that should breed in the cats eare.

The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more.

I love underdogs, people who have achieved extraordinary things against the odds.

Our very contract with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity.

I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone.