Come, let’s be calm: no one incapable of restraint was ever a writer.

Women want you to deceive them: they force you to, and if you resist, they blame you.

Mediocrity cherishes rules; as for me, I hate them; I feel for them and for every restriction, corporation, caste, hierarchy, level, herd, a loathing which fills my soul, and it is in this respect perhaps that I understand martyrdom.

The style, which is something I take to heart, is getting on my nerves horribly. It frustrates and torments me. I have days when Iam sick about it and nights when it gives me a fever. The more I go at it the more I find myself incapable of conveying the Idea.

Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.

The writer must wade into life as into the sea, but only up to the navel.

You need a high degree of corruption or a very big heart to love absolutely everything