“She misunderstood my method, in my opinion, not realizing that my approach, rather obscure to those unfamiliar, was based on the idea that in my struggle with reality, I could exhaust any opponent with whom I was grappling, like one can wear out an olive, for example, before successfully stabbing it with a fork, and that my propensity not to hasten matters, far from having a negative effect, in fact prepared for me a fertile ground where, when things seemed ripe, I could make my move with ease.”

“In the fight between you and reality, be discouraging.”

“The chances of seeing an idea through to completion are inversely proportional to the time you’ve spent talking about it beforehand. ”

“Il me semblait en effet qu'une idée, aussi brillante fût-elle, n'était pas vraiment digne d'être retenue si, pour simplement s'en souvenir, il fallait la noter.”

“Les meilleurs livres sont ceux dont on se souvient du fauteuil dans lequel on les a lus.”

“It's always been difficult for me to speak and express my innermost thoughts. I prefer to write. When I sit down and write, words grow very docile, they come and feed out of my hand like little birds, and I can do almost what I want with them; whereas when I try to marshal them in open air, they fly away from me.”

“My poem must expurgate my manhoodunveil the animality of the best of my being,reveal both the monster behind the friendly smileand the humanity of my most evil deeds;I shall undress the species to its pure nudity,relegate our vanity to the dustbin of time;I shall tell a new story.”