Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!

A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing.

The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.

On the level of simple sensation and mood, making love surely resembles an epileptic fit at least as much as, if not more than, it does eating a meal or conversing with someone.

My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.

I perceive value, I confer value, I create value, I even create — or guarantee — existence. Hence, my compulsion to make “lists.” The things (Beethoven’s music, movies, business firms) won’t exist unless I signify my interest in them by at least noting down their names. Nothing exists unless I maintain it (by my interest, or my potential interest). This is an ultimate, mostly subliminal anxiety. Hence, I must remain always, both in principle + actively, interested in everything. Taking all of knowledge as my province.

Art is not only about something; it is something. A work of art is a thing in the world, not just a text or commentary on the world.