- "It would be senseless of the author to try to convince the reader that his characters once actually lived," begins the narrator.
- Characters are born of "a stimulating phrase or two from a basic situation" (2.1.1). Tomas, for example, was born of the "Es muss sein!", whereas Tereza was born from the rumbling of a stomach.
- When Tereza went up to Tomas's apartment for the first time, she was embarrassed that her stomach was rumbling.