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

Just before she died she asked, What is the answer? No answer came. She laughed and said, In that case, what is the question? Then she died.

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.

Nothing is more interesting than that something that you eat.

An audience is pleasant if you have it, it is flattering and flattering is agreeable always, but if you have an audience the being an audience is their business, they are the audience you are the writer, let each attend to their own business.

Disillusionment in living is finding that no one can really ever be agreeing with you completely in anything.

It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.