Every major work of art is a transgression, but the artist is not necessarily, by nature, a transgressor.

My memories pale as I prevail upon them again and again. They become more and more ghostly. I fear nothing so much as losing them altogether and having only my blank endless mind to live in.

We make a mistake to condescend to the past as if it were preparatory to our own time.

The poem is a cry of the unborn heart. Yes, because the poem perfectly embodies the world, there is no world without poem.

The Shadow had no imagination. He neither looked at naked women nor thought of ridding the world of dictators like Hitler or Mussolini.

I thought of myself as a writer for years before I got around to writing anything.

A writer of books has to admit that film is the enemy, and that in my case I have been sleeping with the enemy.