The ultimate politeness in art consists of speaking only to those who are able to uncover and measure its relationships. Anything else is symbolic, and symbolism is merely transcendental imagery.

Commissions suit me. They set limits. Jean Marais dared me to write play in which he would not speak in the first act, would weep for joy in the second and in the last would fall backward down a flight of stairs.

Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work - that's what makes you unique.

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

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

The poet, by composing poems, uses a language that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us.

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