“Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.”

“ When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.”

“My queerness is not a vice, is not deliberate, and harms no one.”

“It's necessary to use suffering. Otherwise, one is used by it.”

“Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.”

“Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.”

“At first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm knows no bounds. But later on you work with difficulty, doggedly, desperately. For once you have committed yourself to a particular work, inspiration changes its form and becomes an obsession, like a love-affair… which haunts you night and day! Once at grips with a work, we must master it completely before we can recover our idleness.”