The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us. When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult.

The critic should describe, and not prescribe.

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

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.

Like all revolutions, the surrealist revolution was a reversion, a restitution, an expression of vital and indispensable spiritual needs.

Why was I born, if it wasn't forever?