The world isn't kept running because it's a paying proposition. (God doesn't make a cent on the deal.) The world goes on because a few men in every generation believe in it utterly, accept it unquestioningly; they underwrite it with their lives.

I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: The world of art is the only such realm.

Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.

I haven't any allegiance, any responsibilities, any hatreds, any worries, any prejudices, any passion. I'm neither for nor against. I'm a neutral.

An artist earns the right to call himself a creator only when he admits to himself that he is but an instrument.

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.

I believe in saying the truth, coming out with it cold, shocking if necessary, not disguising it.