". . . unless he [the reader] brings to his reading a rigorous logic and a tautness of mind equal at least to his wariness, the deadly emanation of this book will dissolve his soul as water does sugar." (29)

"Like those dogs, I feel the need for the infinite. I cannot, cannot satisfy this need. I am the son of a man and a woman, from what I have been told. This astonishes me . . . I believed I was something more. Besides, what does it matter to me where I come from? If I had any choice, I would rather have been born the male of a female shark, whose hunger welcomes tempests and of the tiger, whose cruelty is well-known." (40)

"You will not, in my last hour, find me surrounded by priests. I want to die lulled by the waves of the stormy sea, or standing on a mountain top . . . my...