“Life is so horrible that one can only bear it by avoiding it. And that can be done by living in the world of art.”

The most important thing in the world is to hold your soul aloft.

Through small apertures we glimpse abysses whose sombre depths turn us faint. And yet over the whole there hovers an extraordinary tenderness.

Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

I have dreamed much and have done very little.

She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.

The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.

You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.

To be simple is no small matter.

The public wants work which flatters its illusions.

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

One’s duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.

My foregrounds are imaginary, my backgrounds real.

There are three thing in the world I love most: the sea, Hamlet, and Don Giovanni.

Earth has its boundaries, but human stupidity is limitless.

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.

I think it’s horrible that people have to be told. Don’t smoke! Everybody knows it’s bad for the health. But they have to forbid it.

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

I know it’s horrible, but they actually make me laugh. They make my day.

If you don’t stick to simplicity, you’ll die a horrible death.

The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.

There are looks that I see on other people that I think would look horrible on me, but I think if somebody has the courage to be really daring and try something outlandish, then more power to them. That’s just encouraging and inspiring.

It is a horrible fact that we can read in the daily paper, without interrupting our breakfast, numerical reckonings of death and destruction that ought to break our hearts or scare us out of our wits.

What makes Freddy Krueger such a horrible character? What makes him scare you to death? You can’t get rid of the guy. He never goes away.