Gustave Flaubert

The man is nothing, the work - all
L'homme n'est rien, l'oeuvre – tout
-Gustave Flaubert, Letter to George Sand (December 1875)

Exuberance is better than taste…
Mieux vaut l'exubérance que le goût.
-Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education (1869) Pt. 1 Ch. 4

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.
-Gustave Flaubert, Letter to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie (March 18, 1857)

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.
-Gustave Flaubert, Letter to Madame Louise Colet (August 14, 1853)

The idea of bringing someone into the world fills me with horror. I would curse myself if I were a father. A son of mine! Oh no, no, no! May my entire flesh perish and may I transmit to no one the aggravations and the disgrace of existence.
-Gustave Flaubert, Letter to Madame Louise Colet (December 11, 1852)

One must not always think that feeling is everything. Art is nothing without form.
-Gustave Flaubert, Letter to Madame Louise Colet (August 12, 1846)