The sex illusion is not a fixed quantity: not what mathematicians call a constant. It varies from zero in my wife's case to madness in that of our stepsister.

Never believe anything a writer tells you about himself. A man comes to believe in the end the lies he tells himself about himself.

When you loved me I gave you the whole sun and stars to play with. I gave you eternity in a single moment, strength of the mountains in one clasp of your arms, and the volume of all the seas in one impulse of your soul.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.

A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is launched there.

When you prevent me from doing anything I want to do, that is persecution; when I prevent you from doing anything you want to do, that is law, order, and morals.