Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.

I don't think you can talk about progress in art - movement, but not progress. You can speak of a point on a line for the purpose of locating things, but it's a horizontal line, not a vertical one.

The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.

The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.

Any genuine work of art generates new work.

I believe that because I had obtained a wife who was made up of wife-signs (beauty, charm, softness, perfume, cookery) I had found love.

Yes, success is everything. Failure is more common. Most achieve a sort of middling thing, but fortunately one's situation is always blurred, you never know absolutely quite where you are.

The death of God left the angels in a strange position.

We are what we have been told about ourselves. We are the sum of the messages we have received. The true messages. The false messages.

The privileged classes can afford psychoanalysis and whiskey. Whereas all we get is sermons and sour wine. This is manifestly unfair. I protest, silently.

Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.

Kindness: It's ours to share.

The shot was so precise that the bullet went out his forehead and shattered a whisky bottle against the wall behind the counter.

Don’t love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

A new acquaintance is like a new book. I prefer it even if bad to a classic.

In a complex universe, in a society undergoing unprecedented change, how can we find the truth if we are not willing to question everything and to give a fair hearing to everything?

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself; you will never err if you listen to your own suggestions.

The searching-out and thorough investigation of truth ought to be the primary study of man.

I don't think I'm generous enough to be the straight guy. I sort of make my own way and make my own statement. Do I mind pushing myself forward? Not at all.

Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.