There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

Don't give a woman advice; one should never give a woman anything she can't wear in the evening.

One's dreams must be big enough so as not to lose sight of them.

I treated Art as the supreme reality and life as a mere mode of fiction.

Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night.

In fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.

Thin-lipped wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense.