Instead of answering her as soon as he saw her hair grow electric, her face more vivid, her eyes like lightning, her body restless and jerky like a racehorse’s, he retired behind this wall of objective understanding, this gentle testing and acceptance of her, just as one watches an animal in the zoo and smiles at his antics, but is not drawn into this mood. It was this which left Lilith in a state of isolation - indeed, like a wild animal in an absolute desert.

I have seen romanticism outlast the realistic. I have seen men forget the beautiful women they have possessed, forget the prostitutes, and remember the first woman they idolized, the woman they could never have. The woman who aroused them romantically holds them.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.

I prefer empty cages, Sabina, until I find a unique bird I once saw in my dreams.

How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.

We are beginning to see the influence of dream upon reality and reality upon dream.

[On Paris:] A city never entirely known, yet which gives you the feeling of intimacy, of possessing it intimately.