Through my satire I make little people so big that afterwards they are worthy objects of my satire and no one can reproach me any longer.

The blind won't admit that I have eyes in my head, and the deaf say that I'm dumb.

Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace.

One can translate an editorial but not a poem. For one can go across the border naked but not without one's skin; for, unlike clothes, one cannot get a new skin.

When I want to go to sleep, I must first get a whole menagerie of voices to shut up. You wouldn't believe what a racket they make in my room.

Insights into erotic life belong to art, not education. But sometimes these have to be spelled out for the illiterates. And it ismainly a matter of convincing the illiterates, for they are the ones who write the penal code.

The real end of the world is the destruction of the spirit; the other kind depends on the insignificant attempt to see whether after such a destruction the world can go on.