Stéphane Mallarmé

"If only I'd chosen an easy work! But, precisely, I, who am sterile and crepuscular, have chosen a terrifying subject, whose sensations , if they are strong, reach the point of atrocity, and if they ar…"

"Inert, all burns in the fierce hour"

"In a museum in London there is an exhibit called "The Value of Man": a long coffinlike box with lots of compartments where they've put starch—phosphorus—flour—bottles of water and alcohol—and big piec…"

"It is in front of the paper that the artist creates himself."

"Degas was discussing poetry with Mallarmé; "It isn't ideas I'm short of... I've got too many" , said Degas. "But Degas," replied Mallarmé, "you can't make a poem with ideas. … You make it with words."

"Yes, I know, we are merely empty forms of matter, but we are indeed sublime in having invented God and our soul. So sublime, my friend, that I want to gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists,…"

"Selected works of Stéphane Mallarmé in French"