The people I am afraid of are the ones who look for tendentiousness between the lines and are determined to see me as either liberal or conservative. I am neither liberal, nor conservative, nor gradualist, nor monk, nor indifferentist. I would like to be a free artist and nothing else, and I regret God has not given me the strength to be one.

Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.

It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.

..when one has no real life, one lives by mirages. It's still better than nothing.

The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

I was oppressed with a sense of vague discontent and dissatisfaction with my own life, which was passing so quickly and uninterestingly, and I kept thinking it would be a good thing if I could tear my heart out of my breast, that heart which had grown so weary of life.

Death is terrifying, but it would be even more terrifying to find out that you are going to live forever and never die.