Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.

Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.

If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.

Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.

It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.

A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.

Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.

Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.

The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today.

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

Youth is certain what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.

What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.

French people are Italian people in a bad mood.

We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.