A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Live for the lovers, not the haters!

It's nonsense to say money doesn't buy happiness, but people exaggerate the extent to which more money can buy more happiness.

The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.

The problem with the loneliness I suffer is that the company of others has never been a cure for it.

There are two infinities in this world: God up above, and down below, human baseness.

When I go to Afghanistan, I realize I've been spared, due to a random genetic lottery, by being born to people who had the means to get out. Every time I go to Afghanistan I am haunted by that.

Between the shores of the oceans and the summit of the highest mountain is a secret route that you must absolutely take before being one with the sons of the Earth.

Skepticism does not preserve us from foolhardy deeds.

I live on hairspray. The bigger the hair, the closer to God.

There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer.