"Believe me that sometimes I laugh heartily because people suspect me of all kinds of malignity and absurdity, of which not a hair of my head is guilty — I, who am really no one but a friend of nature,…"

"It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly coloured than the day."

"I often think about the future, about how things will be when I am gone."

"Next, I'm attempting to do dusty thistles with a great swarm of butterflies swirling above them."

"I would rather die of passion than of boredom."