The reasons that drive me to write are many and the most important are the most secret, I think. Perhaps most of all this: to put something out of death's reach.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

Man's first and greatest victory must be won against the gods.

No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.

No encounter occured that day, and I was glad of it; I took out of my pocket a little Homer I had not opened since leaving Marseilles, reread three lines of the Odyssey, learned them by heart; then, finding sufficient sustenance in their rhythm and reveling in them at leisure, I closed the book and remained, trembling, more alive than I had thought possible, my mind numb with happiness.

Never have I been able to settle in life. Always seated askew, as if on the arm of a chair; ready to get up, to leave.

To win ones joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy.