Umberto Eco Quotes

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Umberto Eco

Profession : Novelist

Birth : January 5, 1932

Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale.

Umberto Eco

Today, political events are nullified unless they're on TV.

Umberto Eco

Many people who no longer go to church end up falling prey to superstition.

Umberto Eco

With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the U.S.A. and China.

Umberto Eco

When someone has to intervene to defend the liberty of the press, that society is sick.

Umberto Eco

The grandeur of Jerusalem is also... its problem.

Umberto Eco

There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism.

Umberto Eco

I think of myself as a serious professor who, during the weekend, writes novels.

Umberto Eco

At a certain moment, I decided to write a story. I had no more small children to tell them stories.

Umberto Eco

When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.

Umberto Eco

It is psychologically very hard to go through life without the justification, and the hope, provided by religion.

Umberto Eco

Even today, I frequently meet scientists who, outside their own narrow discipline, are superstitious.

Umberto Eco

I could work in the shower if I had plastic paper.

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

I like nicotine because it excites my brain and helps me work.

Umberto Eco

If people buy my books for vanity, I consider it a tax on idiocy.

Umberto Eco

The author may not interpret. But he must tell why and how he wrote his book.

Umberto Eco

I don't want to write a novel per year. I know that I need a break of one or two years. So maybe I invent some new, urgent activity so I don't fall into the trap of starting a new novel.

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

To play the trumpet, you must train your lips for a long time. When I was twelve or thirteen I was a good player, but I lost the skill and now I play very badly. I do it every day even so. The reason is that I want to return to my childhood. For me, the trumpet is evidence of the sort of young man I was.

Umberto Eco