Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.

When I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don't. I have a knack for disturbing.

Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.

It is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously.

French people are Italian people in a bad mood.

I am burning myself up and will always do so.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.