Perhaps one never seems so much at one's ease as when one has to play a part.

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.

If we preach God, it means we preach light. Consequently we preach freedom from ignorance.

I mean, look, I love movies, not just the ones I make... In fact, I don't like the movies I make very much.

Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, Good companies survive them, Great companies are improved by them.

My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut. I don't understand why she's crying. I'm the one who has to get a new girlfriend.

There is nothing ugly in sexuality or in the body. It's human!

I'm not interested in collage as the refuge of the composition-ally disabled. I'm interested in collage as (to be honest) an evolution beyond narrative.

Human civilization is not something achieved against nature; it is rather the outcome of the working of the innate qualities of man.

Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.

I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself, trying to compare how many records I've sold or how much money I've made.

Farewell count without a head