“Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.”

“Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom.”

“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”

“The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.”

“All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.”

“The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing.”

“It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.”

“Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.”

“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”

“The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.”

“Solitude appeared to me as the only fit state of man.”