You must neither completely nor partially copy the art of others. If so, you will be producing kitsch.

The techniques of kitsch, which are based on imitation, are rational and operate according to formulas; the remain rational even when their result has a highly irrational, even crazy, quality.

Were one merely to seek information, one should inquire of the man who hates, but if one wishes to know what truly is, one better ask the one who loves

Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.

A kitsch novel describes the world not as it really is, but as it is hoped and feared to be.

The essence of kitsch is the confusion of ethical and esthetic categories; kitsch wants to produce not the "good" but the "beautiful."

The world has always gone through periods of madness so as to advance a bit on the road to reason.