The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.

We don't trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation.

Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.

I had a microscopic eye for the blemish, for the grain of ugliness which to me constituted the sole beauty of the object.

The enchanting, and sometimes terrifying, thing is that the world can be so many things to so many different souls. That it can be, and is, all these things at once and the same time.

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.

Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?