Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure - the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

Tell me", he wanted to say, "everything in the whole world" - for he had the wildest, most absurd, extravagant ideas about poets and poetry - but how to speak to a man who does not see you? who sees ogres, satyrs, perhaps the depth of the sea instead?

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame.

Now the writer, I think, has the chance to live more than other people in the presence of ... reality. It is his business to find it and collect it and communicate it to the rest of us.

But nevertheless, the fact remained, it was almost impossible to dislike anyone if one looked at them.

As an experience, madness is terrific ... and in its lava I still find most of the things I write about.