One of the mistakes the Germans made ... was that they were not brave enough to be afraid.

How easily the routine of sin establishes itself.

Writers know that sometimes things are there in the drawer for decades before they finally come out and you are capable of writing about them.

Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand.

If work and leisure are soon to be subordinated to this one utopian principle - absolute busyness - then utopia and melancholy will come to coincide: an age without conflict will dawn, perpetually busy - and without consciousness.

The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.

Art is hard for a puritan to understand.