It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.

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.

Your status has changed. Your Name is changed! You are a new creation.

What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.

Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.

I left home because I was hungry.

The 'frankness' of people sunk below shame is a very cheap frankness.

The game Rock Band has been haunting me like a bad ring tone. It gets stuck in my head and momentarily effaces all that I love about music.

One must endure without losing tenderness.

Don't Ever fix your lips like collagen And say something when you gon' end up apologing

I've always wanted to work for, like, "Assume your audience is cleverer than you," rather than the other way around.

Also, while I was at Yale, I had a job teaching kids at the museum.