Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

She did not believe that things could remain the same in different places, and since the portion of her life that lay behind her had been bad, no doubt that which remained to be lived would be better.

I go from exasperation to a state of collapse, then I recover and go from prostration to Fury, so that my average state is one of being annoyed.

The public wants work which flatters its illusions.

The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.

I like prostitution. My heart has never failed to pound at the sight of one of those provocatively dressed women walking in the rain under the gaslamps, just as the sight of monks in their robes and girdles touches some ascetic, hidden corner of my soul.

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.