At first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm knows no bounds. But later on you work with difficulty, doggedly, desperately. For once you have committed yourself to a particular work, inspiration changes its form and becomes an obsession, like a love-affair… which haunts you night and day! Once at grips with a work, we must master it completely before we can recover our idleness.

The finest life is spent creating oneself, not procreating.

Eternity: what a waste of time.

To be married is to be neither alone nor together.

Avoid that romantic trap: saying more than you feel, forcing yourself to feel more than you've said!

Sensuality, wanting a religion, invented Love.

I am not a bibliophile but a humanophile: I look for rare human beings.