Cees Nooteboom

"It would be like this when you were really old-a city full of imaginary houses and women, rooms and girls. (Page 125)"

"For the sake of having her with me I had to tolerate the shadow of a tracksuited poet, but one who has taken the guise of a man in love will indiscriminately eat and drink platefuls of thistles, barrels of vinegar."

"That is the difference between gods and men. Gods can change themselves; humans can only be changed."

"I had breezed home on the wings of five gins."

"We will feel the draft blowing through the cracks in the structure of causality."

"Every period in history has its own punishments, and ours has a multitude."

"The world is a never-ending cross-reference."

"It is a peculiarity of time that in retrospect it appears so compact, an indivisible solid object, a dish with only one smell and one flavor. (Page 4)"

"Besides, I simply had to get back to my books right away, because the company of most people, once the predictable events have taken their course, does not inspire conversation on my part."

"Memory is like a dog that lies down where it pleases. (Page 1)"

"My tears are only triggered by kitsch."