In the history of humanity there are no civilizations or cultures which fail to manifest, in one or a thousand ways, this need for an absolute that is called heaven, freedom, a miracle, a lost paradise to be regained, peace, the going beyond History... There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.... Humanity has always had a nostalgia for the freedom that is only beauty, that is only real; life, plenitude, light.

A really conscientious doctor ought to die with his patient. The captain goes down with his ship.

Drama lies in extreme exaggeration of the feelings, an exaggeration that dislocates flat everyday reality.

Oh words, what crimes are committed in your name? ~Jack or The Submission

It's only when I say that everything is incomprehensible that I come as close as possible to understanding the only thing it is given to us to understand.

The poet cannot invent new words every time, of course. He uses the words of the tribe. But the handling of the word, the accent, a new articulation, renew them.

Mediocrity is more dangerous in a critic than in a writer.