I believe that we should read only those books that bite and sting us. If a book we are reading does not rouse us with a blow to the head, then why read it?

The man in ecstasy and the man drowning - both throw up their arms. The first to signify harmony, the second to signify strife with the elements.

The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog.

My life was sweeter than other people's and my death will be more terrible by the same degree.

I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.