Only when I am by seawater can I truly breathe, to say nothing of my ability to think.

I avoid literature whenever possible, because whenever possible I avoid myself.

Our greatest pleasure, surely, is in fragments, just as we derive the most pleasure from life if we regard it as a fragment, whereas the whole and the complete and the perfect are basically abhorrent.

What is ridiculous about human beings, Doctor,' the prince said, 'is actually their total incapacity to be ridiculous

You've always lived a life of pretense, not a real life-- a simulated existence, not a genuine existence. Everything about you, everything you are, has always been pretense, never genuine, never real.

After all, there is nothing but failure.

The art we need is the art of bearing the unbearable.