Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.

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.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

Everyone's pet is the most outstanding. This begets mutual blindness.

Watch yourself all your life in a mirror and you'll see Death at work like bees in a glass hive.

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.