A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

That is exactly the writer's problem. What does literature stand for in a hungry world?

Through the lack of attaching myself to words, my thoughts remain nebulous most of the time. They sketch vague, pleasant shapes and then are swallowed up; I forget them almost immediately.

I enjoy feeling fastidious and aloof. I enjoy saying no, always no, and I should be afraid of any attempt to construct a finally habitable world, because I should merely have to say - Yes; and act like other people.

Words There is no good father, that's the rule. Don't lay the blame on men but on the bond of paternity, which is rotten. To beget children, nothing better; to have them, what iniquity!