The ear disapproves but tolerates certain musical pieces; transfer them into the domain of our nose, and we will be forced to flee.

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.

Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.

The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.

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.

I feel myself inhabited by a force or being -- very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.

The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by the source.