People spend most of their lives worrying about things that never happen.

There is no secret of the heart which our actions do not disclose.

People are all alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.

Great is the fortune of he who possesses a good bottle, a good book, and a good friend.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.

Love is a great master. It teaches us to be what we never were.

Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness.

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.

For me the thing that signals a great story is what we might call its autonomy, the fact that it detaches itself from its author like a soap bubble blown from a clay pipe.

The mysterious does not spell itself out in capital letters, as many writers believe, but is always between, an interstice.

What good is a writer if he can't destroy literature? And us... what good are we if we don't help as much as we can in that destruction?

Literature is ... a game, but it's a game one can put one's life into.

Salt and the center of the world have to be there, in that spot on the tablecloth.

The unusual is only found in a very small percentage, except in literary creations, and that is exactly what makes literature.

I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does

I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story itself.