I am alone on this road strewn with bones and bordered by ruins! Angels have their brothers, and demons have their infernal companions. Yet I have but the sound of my scythe when it harvests, my whistling arrows, my galloping horse. Always the sound of the same wave eating away at the world

You'll always have to deal with bastards, being lied to, deceived, slandered and ridiculed, but that's to be expected and you must thank heaven when you meet the exception.

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.

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

And he beholds the moon; like a rounded fragment of ice filled with motionless light.

Sick, irritated, and the prey to a thousand discomforts, I go on with my labor like a true workingman, who, with sleeves rolled up, in the sweat of his brow, beats away at his anvil, not caring whether it rains or blows, hails or thunders.