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.

It is necessary to sleep upon the pillow of doubt.

What stops me from taking myself seriously, even though I am essentially a serious person, is that I find myself extremely ridiculous, not in the sense of the small-scale ridiculousness of slap-stick comedy, but rather in the sense of ridiculousness that seems intrinsic to human life and that manifests itself in the simplest actions and the most extraordinary gestures.

Noble characters and pure affections and happy scenes are very comforting things. They're a refuge from life's disillusionments.

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

What is glory? It is to have a lot of nonsense talked about you.

The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.