There is no great sport in having bullets flying about one in every direction, but I find they have less horror when among them than when in anticipation. – Umberto Eco
I have to admit that I only read ‘War and Peace’ when I was 40. But I knew the basics before then. – Umberto Eco
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. – Umberto Eco
How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn’t have enough tongues to describe what he sees. Nevertheless, people have never stopping describing the sky, simply listing what they see. – Umberto Eco
The most interesting letters I received about ‘The Name of the Rose’ were from people in the Midwest that maybe didn’t understand exactly, but wanted to understand more and who were excited by this picture of a world which was not their own. – Umberto Eco
The question of manuscript changes is very important for literary criticism, the psychology of creation and other aspects of the study of literature. – Umberto Eco
Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them. – Umberto Eco
When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer. – Umberto Eco
We are never racist against somebody who is very far away. I don’t know any racism against the Eskimos. To have a racist feeling, there must be an other who is slightly different from us – but is living close to us. – Umberto Eco
I don’t see the point of having 80 million people online if all they are doing in the end is talking to ghosts in the suburbs. – Umberto Eco
Religion has nothing to do with God. It’s a fundamental attitude of human beings, who ask about the origins of life and what happens after death. For many, the answer is a personal god. In my opinion, it’s religion that produces God, not the other way round. – Umberto Eco
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. – Umberto Eco
It comes down to a question of attention: it’s difficult to use the Net distractedly, unlike the television or the radio. – Umberto Eco
The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon… The book has been thoroughly tested, and it’s very hard to see how it could be improved on for its current purposes. – Umberto Eco
Certainly, light fiction exists and encompasses mysteries or second-class romance novels, books that are read on the beach, whose only aim is to entertain. These books are not concerned with style or creativity – instead they are successful because they are repetitive and follow a template that readers enjoy. – Umberto Eco
I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don’t tell anybody what I’m doing. I’m living in my private world. And it’s a great sensation. – Umberto Eco
In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner. – Umberto Eco
Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned. – Umberto Eco
After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs. – Umberto Eco
The problem with the Internet is that it gives you everything – reliable material and crazy material. So the problem becomes, how do you discriminate? – Umberto Eco
When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love. – Umberto Eco