Jules Renard

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.

If one were to build the house of happiness, the largest space would be the waiting room.

When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness.

It doesn't pay to say too much when you are mad enough to choke. For the word that stings the deepest is the word that is never spoke, Let the other fellow wrangle till the storm has blown away, then he'll do a heap of thinking about the things you didn't say.

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none

I have no religion,’ says Borneau, ‘but I respect the religion of others. Religion is sacred.’ Why this privilege, this immunity?... A believer creates God in his own image; if he is ugly, his God will be morally ugly. Why should moral ugliness be respectable?

If I had my life to live over again, I would ask that not a thing be changed, but that my eyes be opened wider.

Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird.

When the defects of others are perceived with so much clarity, it is because one possesses them oneself.

if I were to begin my life again, I should want it as it was. I would only open my eyes a little more.

I am never bored; to be bored is an insult to one's self.

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.