[The artist] is like a pump; he has inside him a great pipe that reaches down into the entrails of things, the deepest layers. He sucks up what was lying there below, dim and unnoticed, and brings it in great jets to the sunlight.

The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.

To see one's name in print! Some people commit a crime for no other reason.

Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.

The most important thing in the world is to hold your soul aloft.

What wretched poverty of language! To compare stars to diamonds!

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.