Raymond Queneau

“We think we are living in a rational world, but we are not.”

“Humor is the politeness of despair.”

“It is the end of a fine winter's day, and I am hanging out of the window.”

“The world of numbers and the world of the senses are the two poles of the universe.”

“Doubt is a way of not knowing.”

“Poetry is a way of getting something right in language.”

“The real is not reasonable, nor the reasonable real.”

“Words have a life of their own, and they don't always do what we want them to do.”

“All that I am is a ridiculously insistent whine that I am not.”

“A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way.”

“What's the use of prolonging an existence that could only be a accumulation of new sufferings?”

“To create, one must also destroy.”

“The poet is a man who names what was nameless.”

“Style is not a quality of writing but a quality of vision.”

“Life is a dog's dream, a dream of a dog dreaming he is a man.”

“There's no need to know what you're saying, so long as you say it.”