Gustave Flaubert

I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key. ”

There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things. ”

Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work. ”

I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none. ”

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly. ”

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings. ”

But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands. ”

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. ”

One never tires of what is well written, style is life! It is the very blood of thought! ”

Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying. ”