When men ask me how I know so much about men, they get a simple answer: everything I know about men, I learned from me.

Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts.

It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees - this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward.

You ask me what life is. That's like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there's nothing more to know.

The more refined one is, the more unhappy.

You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I think: "Oh Lord, you've given us huge forests, infinite fields, and endless horizons, and we, living here, ought really to be giants.

A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.