Umberto Eco > Quotes > Quote > Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) liked it

“In the years when I discoverd the Abbé Vallet volume, there was a widespread conviction that one should write only out of a commitment to the present, in order to change the world. Now, after ten years or more, the man of letters (restored to his loftiest dignity) can happily write out of pure love of writing.”
― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose