We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.

The situation is that of him who is helpless, cannot act, in the event cannot paint, since he is obliged to paint. The act is of him who, helpless, unable to act, acts, in the event paints, since he is obliged to paint.

I am interested in the shape of ideas even if I do not believe in them. There is a wonderful sentence in Augustine . . . "Do not despair: one of the thieves was saved; do not presume: one of the thieves was damned." That sentence had a wonderful shape. It is the shape that matters.

But I know what darkness is, it accumulates, thickens, then suddenly bursts and drowns everything.

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.

Decidedly it will never have been given to me to finish anything, except perhaps breathing. One must not be greedy.

Reality, whether approached imaginatively or empirically, remains a surface, hermetic.