Beauty has no other origin than the singular wound, different in every case, hidden or visible, which each man bears within himself, which he preserves, and into which he withdraws when he would quit the world for a temporary but authentic solitude

There are mornings when all men experience with fatigue a flush of tenderness that makes them horny.

The pimp has a grin, never a smile.

First of all, don't mix your hairpins up with mine! You .... Oh! All right, mix your muck with mine. Mix it! Mix your rags with my tatters! Mix it all up.

There is a close relationship between flowers and convicts. The fragility and delicacy of the former are of the same nature as the brutal insensitivity of the latter.

I give the name violence to a boldness lying idle and enamored of danger.

They spent their time doing nothing... they let intimacy fuse them.