I am, myself, three selves at least. To begin with, there is the child I was. Certainly I am not that child anymore! Yet, distantly, or sometimes not so distantly, I can hear that child’s voice — I can feel its hope, or its distress. It has not vanished. Powerful, egotistical, insinuating — its presence rises, in memory, or from the steamy river of dreams. It is not gone, not by a long shot. It is with me in the present hour. It will be with me in the grave.

I am, myself, three selves at least. To begin with, there is the child I was. Certainly I am not that child anymore! Yet, distantly, or sometimes not so distantly, I can hear that child's voice — I can feel its hope, or its distress. It has not vanished. Powerful, egotistical, insinuating — its presence rises, in memory, or from the steamy river of dreams. It is not gone, not by a long shot. It is with me in the present hour. It will be with me in the grave.

I thank God that this refreshing childhood vision still lives inside me in all its fullness of color and sound. This is what keeps my mind untouched by wastage, keeps it from withering and running dry. It is the sacred drop of immortal water which prevents me from dying. When I wish to speak of the sea, woman, or God in my writing, I gaze down in my breast and listen carefully to what the child within me says. He dictates to me; and if it sometimes happens that I come close to these great forces of the sea, woman, and God, approach them by means of words and depict them, I owe it to the child who still lives within me. I become a child again to enable myself to view the world always for the first time, with virgin eyes.

I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you have still chaos in you.

I have always been so sure — too sure... But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: "I do not know..."

Kids are the ones who create; I find it really great to have my inner child still alive.

As a little kid growing up in Hollywood, I was called 'a little crazy'. And now I guess I'm still that way.

We often tend to ignore how much of a child is still in all of us.

I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

When I approach a child he inspires in me two sentiments tenderness for what he is and respect for what he may become.

I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in yourselves.

There is an angel inside me whom I am constantly shocking.

There are also children who are hyperactive and cannot stay still but are always creating trouble. You won’t realise this until you stay with them and see with your own eyes. It gives you a wider spectrum of what children are like in the real world.