 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. |
| An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness. |
| No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance. |
| Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense. |
| The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon. |
| When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently. |
| No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe. |
| Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement. |
| We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets - we remember only. |
| We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests. |
| Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything except his own nature. |
| Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race. |
| The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens. |
| It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd. |
| The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way. |
| Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination. |
| The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them. |
| 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 yourself. |
| Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him. |
| Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire. |
