It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.

I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.

It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realise the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger.

It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.

In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.

If you can do it then why do it?

Oh, I wish I were a miser; being a miser must be so occupying.

The deepest thing in any one is the conviction of the bad luck that follows boasting.

The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not.

It is always a mistake to be plain-spoken.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

The thing that differentiates man from animals is money.

But the problem is that when I go around and speak on campuses, I still don't get young men standing up and saying, 'How can I combine career and family?'

Everybody thinks that this civilization has lasted a very long time but it really does take very few grandfathers' granddaughters to take us back to the dark ages.

It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.

The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.

What is marriage, is marriage protection or religion, is marriage renunciation or abundance, is marriage a stepping-stone or an end. What is marriage.

There is too much fathering going on just now and there is no doubt about it fathers are depressing.

Americans are very friendly and very suspicious, that is what Americans are and that is what always upsets the foreigner, who deals with them, they are so friendly how can they be so suspicious they are so suspicious how can they be so friendly but they just are.

America is my country and Paris is my hometown.

Poetry consists in a rhyming dictionary and things seen.

Do you know because I tell you so, or do you know, do you know.

There is a difference between twenty-nine and thirty. When you are twenty-nine it can be the beginning of everything. When you are thirty it can be the end of everything.

An audience is always warming but it must never be necessary to your work.

Just before she died she asked, What is the answer? No answer came. She laughed and said, In that case, what is the question? Then she died.

Just as everybody has the vote including women, I think children should, because as a child is conscious of itself then it has to me an existence and has a stake in what happens.

Once more I can climb about and remind you that a woman in this epoch does the important literary thinking.

It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself.

The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.

A house in the country is not the same as a country house.

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.

Generally speaking, everyone is more interesting doing nothing than doing anything.

I do want to get rich but I never want to do what there is to do to get rich.

If you are looking down while you are walking it is better to walk up hill the ground is nearer.

It is extraordinary that when you are acquainted with a whole family you can forget about them.

Picasso once remarked I do not care who it is that has or does influence me as long as it is not myself.

Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone.

What is music. A passion for colonies not a love of country.

History takes time. History makes memory.

Hemingway's remarks are not literature.

It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for the future, none at all. It certainly is extraordinary, but it is certainly true.

Human beings are interested in two things. They are interested in the reality and interested in telling about it.

It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.

Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.

What is the answer? In that case, what is the question?

Remarks are not literature.

Sculpture is made with two instruments and some supports and pretty air.

I have declared that patience is never more than patient. I too have declared, that I who am not patient am patient.

It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.