Antonio Tabucchi

My job is to look at what politics is doing, not be a politician myself. ”

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection. ”

When you have a foreign invasion - in this case by the Indonesian army - writers, intellectuals, newspapers and magazines are the first targets of repression. ”

I claim the right to take a stand once in a while. ”

I don't have any doubts either about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Perhaps some more should be added to the list, but I don't have the slightest doubt about human rights. ”

But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance. ”

An intellectual is going to have doubts, for example, about a fundamentalist religious doctrine that admits no doubt, about an imposed political system that allows no doubt, about a perfect aesthetic that has no room for doubt. ”

Xenophobia manifests itself especially against civilizations and cultures that are weak because they lack economic resources, means of subsistence or land. So nomadic people are the first targets of this kind of aggression. ”

The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character. ”

I prefer insomnia to anaesthesia. ”