Milan Kundera - Immortality

drawing a self-portrait via a set of likes and dislikes  "to make it clear to all that it embodied something unique and irreplaceable" p13
"With the faith that our face expresses our self, without that basic illusion...we cannot live or at least we cannot take life seriously" p14

"There are two methods for cultivating the uniqueness of the self. The method of addition and the method of subtraction." p111 
Subtraction involves subtracting from the self everything that is exterior and borrowed, in order to come closer to the sheer essence (even with the risk that zero lurks at the bottom of the subtraction). Addition involves adding more and more attributes which one attempts to identify with (with the risk that the essence of the self may be buried by the additional attributes)