Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.
Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
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.
Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what's known as infinity.
Commissions suit me. They set limits. Jean Marais dared me to write play in which he would not speak in the first act, would weep for joy in the second and in the last would fall backward down a flight of stairs.
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.
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.