A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.

The pimp has a grin, never a smile.

...the characters in my books all resemble each other. They live, with minor variations, the same moments, the same perils, and when I speak of them, my language, which is inspired by them, repeats the same poems in the same tone.

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

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

The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.

She was happy, and perfectly in line with the tradition of those women they used to call "ruined," "fallen," feckless, bitches in heat, ravished dolls, sweet sluts, instant princesses, hot numbers, great lays, succulent morsels, everybody's darlings . . .