I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.

Adultery ... could be as banal as marriage.

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

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming an idiot oneself.

What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright...Haven't you ever happened to come across in a book some vague notion that you've had, some obscure idea that returns from afar and that seems to express completely your most subtle feelings?

I am a man-pen. I feel through the pen, because of the pen.

A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.