I would give my life for a man who is looking for the truth. But I would gladly kill a man who thinks that he has found the truth.

Luis Bunuel's two semishort surrealist hand grenades (cowritten in varying degrees with Salvador Dali) make a double bill that can restore your faith in the subversions of youth. Pure Spanish-Parisian piss and vinegar.

The bar... is an exercise in solitude. Above all else, it must be quiet, dark, very comfortable-and, contrary to modern mores, no music of any kind, no matter how faint. In sum, there should be no more than a dozen tables, and a client that doesn't like to talk.

The decline of the aperitif may well be one of the most depressing phenomena of our time.

Repeat, over and over again, in case anyone forgets it or believes the contrary, that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.

Age is something that doesn't matter unless you're a cheese

A writer or painter cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of nonconformity alive.