“Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.”

“He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made love in his life?) only two or three were really essential and unforgettable. The rest were mere echoes, imitations, repetitions, or reminiscences.”

“and the two of them loved each other for a long time in silence without making love again.”

“At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.”

“Three times in my life I have been captured: by the orphanage, by school, and by the Army. I was four years in the orphanage, seven or eight in school, and three in the Army. Each seemed forever, though. But I'm mistaken. The fact is I was captured only once, when I was born, only that capture is also setting free, which is what this is actually all about. The free prisoner.”

“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.”

“Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.”

“Everything, everything seemed once-upon-a-time.”

“I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”

“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.”