“Talent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation.”

“I have patience in all things – as far as the antechamber.”

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”

“Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

“Soyez réglé dans votre vie et ordinaire comme un bourgeois, afin d'être violent et original dans vos œuvres.”

“With a little more time, patience, and hard work, and above all with a more sensitive taste for the formal aspects of arts, he would have managed to write mediocre poetry, good enough for a lady’s album – and this is always a gallant thing to do, whatever you may say.”

“Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.”