“The artist, and particularly the poet, is always an anarchist in the best sense of the word. He must heed only the call that arises within him from three strong voices: the voice of death, with all its foreboding, the voice of love and the voice of art.”

“But hurry, let's entwine ourselves as one, our mouth broken, our soul bitten by love, so time discovers us safely destroyed.”

“One must lose one's life in order to save it.”

“My relationship with my body has changed. I used to consider it as a servant who should obey, function, give pleasure. In sickness, you realise that you are not the boss. It is the other way around.”

“Money is everywhere but so is poetry. What we lack are the poets.”

“Censorship is advertising paid by the government.”

“All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.”

“When I start a picture, I always have a script, but I change it every day. I put in what occurs to me that day out of my imagination. You start on a voyage; you know where you will end up but not what will occur along the way. You want to be surprised.”

“Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.”

“Experience is what you get while looking for something else.”

“It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive.”