Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn't every word I've said, every thought I've thought, everything I've done, been tied up, weighted, chained? And mind you, I know that with all this I don't succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. ...But think how hard I try and how seldom I dare. Think - and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.

As it was in the beginning, ... is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.

I sit at my window and the words fly past me like birds — with God's help I catch some.

before I could read, almost a baby, I imagined that God, this strange thing or person I heard about, was a book.

Have all beautiful things sad destinies?

You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone. We are alone in the most beautiful place in the world.