Quote collection
441 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe."
"And there is a time, glorious too in its own way, when one scarcely exists, when one is a complete void. I mean, when boredom seems the very stuff of life."
"The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks."
"It is no accident that propels people like us to Paris. Paris is simply an artificial stage, a revolving stage that permits the spectator to glimpse all phases of the conflict. Of itself Paris initiates no dramas. They are begun elsewhere. Paris is simply an obstetrical instrument that tears the living embryo from the womb and puts it in the incubator."
"You are the only woman who has a sense of gaiety, a wise tolerance - no more, you seem to urge me to betray you. I love you for that. [...] I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me."
"He is trying to recapture his innocence, yet all he succeeds in doing (by writing) is to inoculate the world with a virus of his disillusionment."
"The purpose of life is to remember."
"They were painfully clean. But inwardly they stank. Never once had they opened the door which leads to the soul; never once did they dream of taking a blind leap into the dark."
"The most difficult thing to adjust to, apparently, is peace and contentment."
"There is only one thing which interests me vitally now, and that is the recording of all that which is omitted in books"
"The practice of any art demands more than 'mere savoir faire'. One must not only be in love with what one does, one must also know how to make love. In love self is obliterated. Only the beloved counts."
"We don't trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation."
"Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip."
"No man would set a word down on paper if he had the courage to live out what he believed in."
"I feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality and creativeness, and that's un-American somehow."
"Who wants to be a hundred? What's the point of it? A short life and a merry one is far better than a long one sustained by fear, caution, and perpetual medical surveillance."
"Once you have given up the ghost, everything follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos."
"Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?"
"I believe in saying the truth, coming out with it cold, shocking if necessary, not disguising it."
"It is now the fall of my second year in Paris. I was sent here for a reason I have not yet been able to fathom. I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. A year ago, six months ago, i thought I was an artist. I no longer think about it. I am. There are no more books to be written, thank God."