The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his environment.

I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. There is not any part of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surfaces of the water.

Life is beautiful, as long as it consumes you. When it is rushing through you, destroying you, life is gorgeous, glorious. It's when you burn a slow fire and save fuel, that life's not worth having.

Pornography is the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it.

Art is a form of supremely delicate awareness and atonement — meaning atoneness, the state of being at one with the object.

How I hate the attitude of ordinary people to life. How I loathe ordinariness! How from my soul I abhor nice simple people, with their eternal price list. It makes my blood boil.

Sentimentalism is the working off on yourself of feelings you haven't really got.