The great mystery is not that we should have been thrown down here at random between the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that from our very prison we should draw, from our own selves, images powerful enough to deny our own nothingness.

As for the outside world, the artist is confronted by what he sees; but what he sees is primarily what he looks at.

The world of art is not a world of immortality but of metamorphosis.

Every great masterpiece is a purification of the world.

A political leader is necessarily an imposter since he believes in solving life's problems without asking its question.

Genius is not perfected, it is deepened. It does not so much interpret the world as fertilize itself with it.

Christ...an anarchist who succeeded. That's all.