Art, like Nature, has her monsters

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.

I wish for you a goodnight of sleep, sweet dreams, and a smiling morning.

It is possible, he thought, to be completely happy in marriage--though you must be willing to hold on when your ship was lost at sea and there was no guarantee of rescue.

And then he was kissing me like we were both on fire and he was trying to put the flames out, and I kissed him back like an arsonist with a pocketful of matches.

He was a man built to yearn for what he could not have.

Hire people you get along with, and then let them do what they do best.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything.

Self discovery doesn't not seek to bring you answers about your personal life or philosophically comfort you about life and death. What it does is bring you into reality as perception itself.

Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness.

The purpose of education...is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.

I don't want a picture to look like something it isn't. I want it to look like something it is.