“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”

confusion of aims

April 1, 2008

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

“Form follows emotion”

good prose

March 26, 2008

“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.”

“Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography. For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what makes up the continuous flow of life. Here, I am talking of a space, of moments and discontinuities. For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form — it may be called fleeting or eternal — is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.”

Strength lies in

March 26, 2008

“These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed.”

“Opinions are a private matter. The public has an interest only in judgments.”

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

disappointed love

March 20, 2008

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one’s nose, taking shortcuts.