Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.

Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin.

Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.

The modern painter…is an excellent couturier

He realized at last that the arguments of pessimism were powerless to comfort him

Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.

Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.

Art and prayer are the only decent ejaculations of the soul.

The loveliest tune imaginable becomes vulgar and insupportable as soon as the public begins to hum it and the hurdy-gurdies make it their own.

Only the chaste are truly obscene.

How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.

A diamond's happy ending is on a crown, but its beauty was formed in dirt.

... he does pledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.

We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists.

I think if you don't stop an actor every two minutes, changing the position of the camera and the lighting, there is going to be a flow of energy.

Murder begins where self-defense ends.

I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.

Our prep's not going to be any different. It will be optional batting practice like there was today. I don't want any more work. I don't want extra study.

Don't let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself.

Kids need stuff which is different than what their life is that they can kind of live through.

The Temptations still stand today, not in spite of those who left us, but because of them.