The subject matter of art is life, life as it actually is; but the function of art is to make life better.

After all everybody, that is, everybody who writes is interested in living inside themselves in order to tell what is inside themselves. That is why writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, is is separate from themselves, it is not real but it is really there.

I am I because my little dog knows me.

A writer must always try to have a philosophy and he should also have a psychology and a philology and many other things. Without a philosophy and a psychology and all these various other things he is not really worthy of being called a writer. I agree with Kant and Schopenhauer and Plato and Spinoza and that is quite enough to be called a philosophy. But then of course a philosophy is not the same thing as a style.

Once upon a time the world was round, and you could go on it around and around.

Honesty is a selfish virtue. Yes I am honest enough.

When you get there, there isn't any there there.