"Sleep breaks up the state of waking life, but for the sleepless one, who remains lucid in the middle of the night, there is no difference between day and night. He lives in a kind of ceaseless, endless time. It is another time and another world. Life in essence can only be sustained because of the discontinuity. Why else does one sleep? Not to rest, but above all to forget. A person who wakes up after a night of unbroken sleep has the illusion of beginning something new. When one instead remains awake the whole night long, nothing new begins. At eight in the morning one is in the same condition as at eight at night and one's perspective on things is naturally completely different. I believe that the fact that I have never believed in progress, that I have never allowed myself to be seduced by "progress," has to do with that. One has simply a completely different attitude toward time: not time that passes, but time that will not go away. That alters a life, naturally. And on account of that I believe, now as then, that the greatest experiences one can have in life are white nights: they mark one forever, until death. That is of course understandable: in former times they tortured people by depriving them of sleep; after a few sleepless nights, one would admit to or sign anything. The secret of life is sleep; it makes life possible. If one could prevent mankind from sleeping, I am convinced that a massacre without end would ensue; it would mean the end of history."