One should hate very little, because it's extremely fatiguing. One should despise much, forgive often and never forget. Pardon does not bring with it forgetfulness; at least not for me.

I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America.

It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.

Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves.

We must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.

What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?

I refuse the title of artist to those who owe their reputations to a physical deformity. I regard them as buffoons.