. . . human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars. |
A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier |
A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man. |
All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry. |
Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough. |
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. |
As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use. |
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. |
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. |
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. |
Books are made not like children but like pyramids and they're just as useless! And they stay in the desert! Jackals piss at their foot and the bourgeois climb up on them. |
But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands. |
By dint of railing at idiots you run the risk of becoming idiotic yourself |
By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming idiotic oneself |
Do not imagine you can exorcise what oppresses you in life by giving vent to it in art |