Misery is the only thing in the world that has no end or edge.

Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre. [Vincent Van Gogh]

The best romance is inside marriage; the finest love stories come after the wedding, not before.

There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.

I do not know a better cure for mental illness than a book.

Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.

Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.

Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink.

No artist is normal. Who happen to be normal cannot be an artist.

A man who has not suffered has nothing to tell with his paintings.

One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.

Freedom: both so priceless and so expensive.

I might not be physically strong.But I do believe that to survive, I need to be strong-willed.Which is more important in life?

The customs are as formalised as an eighteenth-century minuet, and a child at the race's knee learns the moves and twirls by osmosis and observation.

Never believe people in this business who say they don't read what's written about them.

California, here I come, right back where I started from.

A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.

You could cry, get worried or angry like any other normal human being, as long as you remembered that, up above, your spirit was laughing out loud at all those thorny situations.

At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life.

Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time in London, Switzerland and New York, Africa is the place I know and love best, and my heart will always lie here.

I get along very well with animals and children. I dig them, I get them.