If I was dead, I wouldn't know I was dead. That's the only thing I have against death. I want to enjoy my death.

There are two moments worthwhile in writing, the one when you start and the other when you throw it in the waste-paper basket.

To restore silence is the role of objects.

Absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, let alone the dullness of it and the pomposities of it.

Poetry is essentially the antithesis of Metaphysics: Metaphysics purge the mind of the senses and cultivate the disembodiment of the spiritual; Poetry is all passionate and feeling and animates the inanimate; Metaphysics are most perfect when concerned with universals; Poetry, when most concerned with particulars.

What is more true than anything else? To swim is true and to sink is true. One cannot speak any more of being, one must speak onlyof the mess.

Habit is a compromise effected between an individual and his environment.