Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel.

Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

I am certainly convinced that it is one of the greatest impulses of mankind to arrive at something higher than a natural state.

It is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French.

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.

At four o'clock in the morning, when everyone is drunk enough, then extraordinary things can happen.