Novelist

The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.

Bepergian bisa membuatmu jadi rendah hati. Kau menyadari bahwa kau hanya punya setitik tempat di semesta.

The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.

I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.

One arrives at style only with atrocious effort, with fanatical and devoted stubbornness.

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

Semua kecerdasannya adalah mesin perang.

There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.

There is no truth. There is only perception.

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.

Madame Bovary is myself.

A memory is a beautiful thing, it's almost a desire that you miss.

The cult of art gives pride; one never has too much of it.

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.

What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.

It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.