The public wants work which flatters its illusions. - Gustave Flaubert

"The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy."

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

"There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it"

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

"Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work."