I come from a stupid family. During the civil war my great uncle fought for the west.
All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.
What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and the one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two join, unite, become inseparable. The I and the you vanish. To love means to lose oneself in the beloved.
My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.
The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.
A certain amount of danger is essential to the quality of life.
I find it impossible to think of a picture save as a window, and my first concern about a window is to find out what it looks out on. . . and there is nothing I love so much as something which stretches away from me out of sight.
What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.
I don't believe in telling all to the public, but I feel a certain gratitude to them for having provided me with a fine material base that enables me to do pretty much what I want, possibly, for the rest of my life.