The need to express oneself in writing springs from a mal-adjustment to life, or from an inner conflict which the adolescent (or the grown man) cannot resolve in action. Those to whom action comes as easily as breathing rarely feel the need to break loose from the real, to rise above, and describe it... I do not mean that it is enough to be maladjusted to become a great writer, but writing is, for some, a method of resolving a conflict, provided they have the necessary talent.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

The minds of different generations are as impenetrable one by the other as are the monads of Leibniz.

If you create a character, you create a destiny.

We don't love a woman for what she says, we like what she says because we love her.

Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world.

Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.