The philosophy of poetry must acknowledge that the poetic act has no past, at least no recent past, in which its preparation and appearance could be followed.
Gaston BachelardA special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.
Gaston BachelardThe best proof of the specificity of the book is that it is at once a reality of the virtual and a virtuality of the real.
Gaston BachelardWhat is the source of our first suffering? It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak... It was born in the moment when we accumulated silent things within us.
Gaston BachelardActually, however, life begins less by reaching upward, than by turning upon itself. But what a marvelously insidious, subtle image of life a coiling vital principle would be! And how many dreams the leftward oriented shell, or one that did not conform to the rotation of its species, would inspire!
Gaston Bachelard