Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.
Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.
Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.
As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.
What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
No deep and strong feeling, such as we may come across here and there in the world, is unmixed with compassion. The more we love, the more the object of our love seems to us to be a victim.
That's metaphysics, my dear fellow. It's forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won't take it.
Art has two constant, two unending concerns: It always meditates on death and thus always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St John.
As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.
Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one's stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life.
You fall into my arms. You are the good gift of destruction's path, When life sickens more than disease. And boldness is the root of beauty. Which draws us together.
In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will.