Only the chaste are truly obscene.

Worshiping the Devil is no more insane than worshiping God...It is precisely at the moment when positivism is at its high-water mark that mysticism stirs into life and the follies of occultism begin.

Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.

The modern painter…is an excellent couturier

He realized at last that the arguments of pessimism were powerless to comfort him

Immersed in solitude, he would dream or read far into the night. By protracted contemplation of the same thoughts, his mind grew sharp, his vague, undeveloped ideas took on form.

Menacing lines of black tomorrows on the horizon.

Art and prayer are the only decent ejaculations of the soul.

The loveliest tune imaginable becomes vulgar and insupportable as soon as the public begins to hum it and the hurdy-gurdies make it their own.

How inferior the human machine is, compared to man-made machines. They can be decoked, unscrewed, oiled and parts replaced. Decidedly, nature is not a very wonderful thing.

Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.

In life we must be willing to take risks, for that is the only way progress is attained.

If rocks did not persevere under heat and pressure, they would never become diamonds.

Like a kiss, the pain which envelops us will leave and in it's place there will be an empty pit.

Most kings and priests have been despotic, and all religions have been riddled with superstition.

When you feel good about what youve written, there is just no high that is greater.

Your needs are big because the Internet is big.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

Even the once simple home mortgage now has so many flavors and styles and variations that it is difficult for people to make a decision.

So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

I think Hollywood sees so many parts of America through a very narrow prism. The South is no exception. And those stereotypes, while sometimes true, are exaggerated for me to the point of boredom.