“I am interested only in "nonsense"; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestations.”

“I was most happy when pen and paper were taken from me and I was forbidden from doing anything. I had no anxiety about doing nothing by my own fault, my conscience was clear, and I was happy. This was when I was in prison.”

“There lived a redheaded man who had no eyes or ears. He didn’t have hair either, so he was called a redhead arbitrarily. He couldn’t talk because he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didn’t even have arms or legs. He had no stomach, he had no back, he had no spine, and he had no innards at all. He didn’t have anything. So we don’t even know who we’re talking about. It’s better that we don’t talk about him any more.”

“One must write poetry in such as way that if one threw the poem in a window, the pane would break.”

“Меня интересует только «чушь», только то, что не имеет никакого практического смысла. Меня интересует только жизнь в своем нелепом проявлении...”

“I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea.”

“I only regret that everybody wants to deprive me of the journal, which is the only steadfast friend I have, the only one which makes my life bearable, because my happiness with human beings is so precarious, my confiding moods rare, and the least sign of non-interest is enough to silence me. In the journal I am at ease.”