We must be holy without holiness. We must be whole, complete. That's being holy. Any other kind of holiness is false, a snare, and a delusion.

It was only in my forties that I started feeling young.

The Frenchman is first and foremost a man. He is likeable often just because of his weaknesses, which are always thoroughly human, even if despicable.

The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses.

Music is the can-opener of the soul.

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.

The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.