Pain, I came to feel, might well prove to be the sole proof of the persistence of consciousness within the flesh, the sole physical expression of consciousness. As my body acquired muscle, and in turn strength, there was gradually born within me a tendency towards the positive acceptance of pain, and my interest in physical suffering deepened.

The instant that the blade tore open his flesh, the bright disk of the sun soared up and exploded behind his eyelids.

...of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.

The highest point at which human life and art meet is in the ordinary. To look down on the ordinary is to despise what you can't have. Show me a man who fears being ordinary, and I'll show you a man who is not yet a man.

For clearly it is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other.

Quite possibly, what I call happiness may coincide with what others call the moment of imminent danger

I had no taste for defeat - much less victory - without a fight.