Top 117 Quotes by Umberto Eco

There are books on our shelves we haven't read and doubtless never will, that each of us has probably put to one side in the belief that we will read them later on, perhaps even in another life.

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

Translation is the art of failure.

Media populism means appealing to people directly through media. A politician who can master the media can shape political affairs outside of parliament and even eliminate the mediation of parliament.

Libraries can take the place of God.

I was a fervent Catholic, and I belonged to the national organizations, even becoming one of the national leaders, until the age of 21, 22.

Narrativity presumes a special taste for plot. And this taste for plot was always very present in the Anglo-Saxon countries and that explains their high quality of detective novels.

The question of manuscript changes is very important for literary criticism, the psychology of creation and other aspects of the study of literature.

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.

The French, the Italians, the Germans, the Spanish and the English have spent centuries killing each other.