Love is the greatest of all things – because it is the source of all things.

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.

It’s not the work which kills you, it’s the worry.

Work on one thing at a time until finished.

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

It is not the business of the artist to record his own personal thoughts. The business of the artist is to record life as it is.

The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we’re passing one another without a look of recognition.

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.

We have been educated to such a fine – or dull – point that we are incapable of enjoying something new, something different, until we are first told what it’s all about. We don’t trust our five senses; we rely on our critics and educators, all of whom are failures in the realm of creation. In short, the blind lead the blind. It’s the democratic way

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.

The world is like an oyster – hard, but rich with treasure.

Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed.

Music is the can-opener of the soul.

There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature.

We do not talk – we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

Everything that is, is a gift. It’s a great gift to be able to write. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do.

Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk.

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets – we remember only.

A writer is a world trapped in a person.

Real love is never perplexed, never qualifies, never rejects, never demands. It replenishes, by grace of restoring unlimited circulation. It burns, because it knows the true meaning of sacrifice. It is life illuminated.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

Hope is a bad thing. It means that you are not what you want to be. It means that part of you is dead, if not all of you. It means that you entertain illusions. It’s a sort of spiritual clap, I should say.

An artist is always alone – if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

We are all born in the wrong time.

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.

The goal of life is not to possess power but to radiate it.

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

The world is what it is, and the sooner you accept it, the better off you’ll be.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

…the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing.

The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.

It’s only by not thinking that you can do things.

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.

Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

I believe that one of the most important things a writer can do is to tell the truth.

We live at the edge of the miraculous.

All growth is a leap in the dark.

It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd.

I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable.

The time to hesitate is through.

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.

Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation… The other eight are unimportant.

One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.