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.
Antonio Tabucchi

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.
Antonio Tabucchi

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

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.
Antonio Tabucchi

Doubts are like stains on a shirt. I like shirts with stains, because when I'm given a shirt that's too clean, one that's completely white, I immediately start having doubts.
Antonio Tabucchi

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.
Antonio Tabucchi

Fifty years after half a million gypsies were exterminated in the Second World War - thousands of them in Auschwitz - we're again preparing the mass killing of this minority.
Antonio Tabucchi

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

I don't go for people who lead full and satisfying lives.
Antonio Tabucchi

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.
Antonio Tabucchi


I don't know whether these people are going to find themselves, but as they live their lives they have no choice but to face up to the image others have of them. They're forced to look at themselves in a mirror, and they often manage to glimpse something of themselves.
Antonio Tabucchi

I don't want to promote my own image either. I don't like going on television or mixing in literary circles.
Antonio Tabucchi

I live quietly at home among my family and friends.
Antonio Tabucchi

I prefer insomnia to anaesthesia.
Antonio Tabucchi

I vividly remember the stories my grandfather told me about the carnage of the First World War, which people tend to forget was one of the worst massacres in human history.
Antonio Tabucchi

I was born in the Second World War during the Nazi invasion of my country.
Antonio Tabucchi

I've always been drawn to tormented people full of contradictions.
Antonio Tabucchi

In a novel, my feelings and sense of outrage can find a broader means of expression which would be more symbolic and applicable to many European countries.
Antonio Tabucchi

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

It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world.
Antonio Tabucchi