“Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.”

“The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.”

“The poet doesn't invent. He listens.”

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

“Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.”

“Life is a horizontal fall.”

“The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.”

“I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.”

“Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.”

“The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.”

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