There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.

In the construction of Immortal Fame you need first of all a cosmic shamelessness.

Nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn.

The author may not interpret. But he must tell why and how he wrote his book.

Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message.

In the United States there's a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.

American coffee can be a pale solution served at a temperature of 100oC