A pretext-not a cause-is sufficient for us to enter the "solitary situation", the situation of the dreaming solitude. In this solitude, memories arrange themselves in tableaux. Decor takes precedence over drama. Sad memories take on at least the peace of melancholy.

Poetry is one of the destinies of speech... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.

True poetry is a function of awakening. It awakens us, but it must retain the memory of previous dreams.

By listening to certain words as a child listens to the sea in a seashell, a word dreamer hears the murmur of a world of dreams.

Every corner in a house, every angle in a room, every inch of secluded space in which we like to hide, or withdraw into ourselves, is a symbol of solitude for the imagination; that is to say, it is the germ of a room, or of a house.

The cleverer I am at miniaturizing the world, the better I possess it.

One must live to build one's house, and not build one's house to live in.