Others

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

Artists are the antennae of the race.

Artists are the antennae of the race.

The serious artist . . . is like an object caught by a wave and swept to shore. He’s obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.

The serious artist . . . is like an object caught by a wave and swept to shore. He’s obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work . . . as the soldier flings himself into the enemy’s trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner . . . he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.

If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work . . . as the soldier flings himself into the enemy’s trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner . . . he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.

The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one’s self.

A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is essentially anonymous about it.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small “yes” at the center of a vast “no.”

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

It is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin; another’s voice; another’s soul.

I don’t think we should read for instruction but to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.

A good quotation must be a complete entity. It must be like a headline—sharp, clear, whole.

A good quotation must be a complete entity. It must be like a headline—sharp, clear, whole.

To be apt in quotation is a splendid and dangerous gift. Splendid, because it ornaments a man’s speech with other men’s jewels; dangerous, for the same reason.

I pick up favorite quotations, and store them in my mind as ready armor, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.

When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near.

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.

You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on top of a hill; and the stone goes, starting others.