So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.

Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.

History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.

How often it consoles me to think of barbarism once more flooding the world, and real feelings and passions, however rudimentary, taking the place of our wretched hypocrisies.

I think family, friends and a sense of community give you greater happiness than money. But, of course, one has to have a minimum on which to live. The joy I get from sitting around and having a laugh is immeasurable - much greater than anything that I have ever bought.

As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness or misery of the future man.

But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.

My definition of God is the highest supreme feeling of beauty and light and happiness.