118

...the profession of images on a cinema screen... he compared to the "metamorphosis of a tapeworm." This was a dig at the spacious glitter of the then fashionable Eisenstein with his mechanical splendors. Motion of this kind was tantamount, in M.'s view, to immobility.

p247

"It is well known that everybody who has ever tried to make people happy only brought total disaster on them."

p252

When I used to read about the French Revolution as a child, I often wondered whether it was possible to survive during a reign of terror. I now know beyond doubt that it is impossible. Anybody who breathes the air of terror is doomed, even if nominally he manages to save his life. Everybody is a victim - not only those who die, but also all the killers, ideologists, accomplices and sycophants who close their eyes or wash their hands - even if they are secretly consumed with remorse at

119

night. Every section of the population has been through the terrible sickness caused by terror, and none has so far recovered, or become fit again for normal civic life. It is an illness that is passed on to the next generation, so that the sons pay for the sins of the fathers and perhaps only the grandchildren begin to get over it - or at least it takes on a different form with them.

p297

All the same, everybody went to bed early, to avoid putting the lights on. Perhaps it was the most primitive animal instinct - better sit in the darkness of your burrow than in the light. I know the feeling well myself - whenever a car stops outside the house, you want to switch off the light.

p320

...M. asked him why he was so drawn to "militiamen": was it a desire to see what it was like in the exclusive store where the merchandise was death? Did he just want to touch it with his fingers? "No," Babel