I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die. I want you to be amazed by me, and to confess to yourself that you had never even dreamed of such transports.... When you are old, I want you to recall those few hours, I want your dry bones to quiver with joy when you think of them.

I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.

In her enthusiasms she had always looked for something tangible: she had always loved church for its flowers, music for its romantic words, literature for its power to stir the passions and she rebelled before the mysteries of faith just as she grew ever more restive under discipline, which was antipathetic to her nature.

The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.

Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.

I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.

What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in!