A writer should never install himself before a panorama, however grandiose it may be.

Humanity lives in its fiction.

Photogenic is a stupid, nonsensical word, but it is also a great mystery.

Only a soul full of despair can ever attain serenity and, to be in despair, you must have loved a good deal and still love the world.

One's life, from being an exterior thing, grows inwards. Its intensity stays the same; and, d'you know, it's most mysterious, the corners in which the joy of living can sometimes hide away.

The single fact of existing is already a true happiness.

I'm not an extraordinary worker, I'm an extraordinary daydreamer. I exceed all my fantasies-even that of writing.

Writing is a noble privilege compared with the lot of most people, who live like parts of a machine, who live only to keep the gears of society pointlessly turning.

Life The machine The human soul A 75mm breech My portrait

Without the help of selfishness, the human animal would never have developed. Egoism is the vine by which man hoisted himself out of the swamp and escaped from the jungle.

My poor life This shawl Frayed on strongboxes full of gold I roll along with Dream And smoke And the only flame in the universe

What good is faith if it causes pain for another? What good is religion if it does no good? What good is any belief that leads to hate?

I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car's headlights and tell you exactly which way it's coming.

Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure.

A nobleness to try for, A name to live and die for.

He who loses an opportunity is like the man who lets a bird fly from his hand, for he will never recover it.

I am tired of hiding, tired of misspent and knotted energies, tired of the hypocrisy, and tired of acting as though I have something to hide.

Christianity made us think there's one heaven.

The goal of design is to raise the expectation of what design can be

Seventy-five years ago I was born in Tampico, Illinois, in a little flat above the bank building. We didn't have any other contact with the bank than that.

My first film crush was Mark Lester as Oliver Twist in the Carol Reed film.