If an addict who has been completely cured starts smoking again he no longer experiences the discomfort of his first addiction. There exists, therefore, outside alkaloids and habit, a sense for opium, an intangible habit which lives on, despite the recasting of the organism. The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.

Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility... It insists on living its own life.

Lack of manners is the sign of a hero.

If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.

What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show. Jacques felt himself growing gloomy again. He was well aware that to live on earth a man must follow its fashions, and hearts were no longer worn.