If it were possible to have a life absolutely free from every feeling of sin, what a terrifying vacuum it would be.

No woman marries for money; they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him first.

All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition.

Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time - is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.

For women, history does not exist. Murasaki, Sappho, and Madame Lafayette might be their own contemporaries.

When writing poetry, it is not that produces a bright idea, but the bright idea that kindles the fire of.

The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it.