“The thought that all experience will be lost at the moment of my death...” — Umberto Eco Quote

“The thought that all experience will be lost at the moment of my death makes me feel pain and fear... What a waste, decades spent building up experience, only to throw it all away... We remedy this sadness by working. For example, by writing, painting, or building cities.”

“Homer's work hits again and again on the topos of the inexpressible. People will always do that.”

“It is clear that when you write a story that takes place in the past, you try to show what really happened in those times. But you are always moved by the suspicion that you are also showing something about our contemporary world.”

“Many rich people in China made their fortunes by damaging natural resources and building corrupt relations with the government.”

“None of us, no matter how perfect, can claim that the building of a new society and the marshalling of a former liberation movement into a modern political party all happen in a straight line.”

“I always say my first job is my building trade. The rest comes and goes.”