When the Communist Party comes to power, it acts a lot like the mafia: If you are a loyal member in good standing, everything is yours. You're protected, even if you commit a crime.

Lovers of literature will look for the remains of the golden treasure in that shipwreck on the bottom of the sea of criticism.

Artists hold out the mirror to the bruises on the face of the world.

Arnošt Lustig is one of the leading contemporary Czech fiction writers, and certainly the most important Jewish writer of Bohemia to have survived the Holocaust.

There is something that falls short of perfection in every book, without exception, something influenced by the age, even something ridiculous; just like everyone, without exception, has weaknesses.

I'd been so fascinated by the notion, that I'd forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth. I'd been asleep, dreaming.

I would like to make something that is real in itself that does not remind anyone of any other things, and that does not have to be explained like the letter A, for instance.

An essential quality of beauty is aloofness.

I think that during the shoot, you should never be there, unless something goes really wrong and as producer, you're responsible. The sign you did your job right is if you are not there.

It is but a truism that labor is most productive where its wages are largest. Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.

It is wonderful how cheered a pilot becomes after he shoots down his first machine; his morale increases by at least 100 percent.

Letting off ammunition in every direction, Allah is my only protection. But wait a minute, Saddam Hussein prays the same.

Everyone knows the game is about the players.

I really hate people who feel their private lives should be paraded, and there are magazines like 'Hello!,' 'OK' and 'Bella' totally devoted to this.