But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

We have very primitive emotions,” he said . “It's impossible not to be competitive. Spoils everything, though.

Decadence is a difficult word to use since it has become little more than a term of abuse applied by critics to anything they do not yet understand or which seems to differ from their moral concepts.

I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about.

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.