Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one verb to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective.

Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.

On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters.

Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles.

She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague “she” of all the poetry books.

The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror

What I would like to write is a book about nothing, a book without exterior attachments, which would be held together by the innerforce of its style, as the earth without support is held in the air--a book that would have almost no subject or at least in which the subject would be almost invisible.