“An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and has no hair under her arms.”

“The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.”

“What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.”

“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.”

“The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.”

“I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was constantly by my side while I was writing it, who was the good fairy of my equilibrium, who banished the salamanders of my doubts and strengthened the lions of certainties...”

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”