I don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is.

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.

It seems to me... that I have always lived! I possess memories that go back to the Pharoahs. I see myself very clearly at different ages of history, practicing different professions... My present personality is the result of my lost [past] personalities.

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

One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.

Success is a consequence and must not be a goal. I've never sought it (though I desire it) and seek it less and less.

He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.