A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

To bless thine enemy is a good way to satisfy thy vanity.

Writing is only a guided dream.

The worst labyrinth is not that intricate form that can entrap us forever, but a single and precise straight line

It seemed incredible that this day, a day without warnings or omens, might be that of my implacable death.

The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.

The execution was set for the 29th of March, at nine in the morning. This delay was due to a desire on the part of the authorities to act slowly and impersonally, in the manner of planets or vegetables.