Theophile Gautier Quotes

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

Art is beauty, the perpetual invention of detail, the choice of words, the exquisite care of execution.

The word poet literally means maker: anything which is not well made doesn't exist.

I am one of those for whom superfluity is a necessity.

Critical lice are like body lice, which desert corpses to seek the living.

Good heavens! what a foolish thing is this pretended perfectibility of the human race which is continually being dinned into our ears!

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

Books follow morals, and not morals books.

Any man which an idea, however subtle and unexpected it may be, finds lacking, is not a writer. The inexpressible does not exist.

[Great artists] do not copy what they see, but what they desire.