Art is anything people do with distinction.

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

What is forgiven is usually well remembered.

There are two kinds of people; those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievement from the second.

All the ills of mankind spring from belonging to a race, a nation, a city, a group of some kind. The ideal would be to belong to none, and to care for allbut who is capable of that?

A good reputation is better than fame.

Reason to rule, mercy to forgive: The first is law, the last prerogative.

Intellectually, most people never wash. They never free their minds of the accumulated rubbish of centuries.

The best live among us in disguise.

Imagination should be integrated with life, not turned into a separate activity, art, that monopolizes one's whole existence.

A critic at best is a waiter at the great table of literature.

Like the rudder or anchor on a ship, your habits can guide you in the direction of your dreams or hold you back and keep you from achieving them.

According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life.

I thought I would be understood without words.

And if I forget how many times I have been here, and in how many shapes, this forgetting is the necessary interval of darkness between every pulsation of light. I return in every baby born.

One of my big inspirations was Céleste Mogador. She was a courtesan who wrote her memoirs in order to pay off her debts, which is a hilarious gesture.

Islamic terrorists are new examples of an old problem with fascism.

It is comparatively easy to become a writer; staying a writer, resisting formulaic work, generating ones own creativity - thats a much tougher matter.

It would be crazy for me to come out now talking about selling drugs and doing all this stuff I never did for the sake of A&R or records or trying to keep the street buzz or whatever.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.