Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.

I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters.

Death is just infinity closing in.

One concept corrupts and confuses the others. I am not speaking of the Evil whose limited sphere is ethics; I am speaking of the infinite.

So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

I know of a wild region whose librarians repudiate the vain superstitious custom of seeking any sense in books and compare it to looking for meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines of one's hands . . . They admit that the inventors of writing imitated the twenty-five natural symbols, but they maintain that this application is accidental and that books in themselves mean nothing. This opinion - we shall see - is not altogether false.

When I feel I'm going to write something, then I just am quiet and I try to listen. Then something comes through. And I do what I can in order not to tamper with it.