The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.

The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist, the man of vision a criminal.

I am a free man―and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me! Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to any one. I would be responsible to God alone―if He existed!

What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature.

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

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.

The goal of life is not to possess power but to radiate it.