Do they merit vitriol, even a drop of it? Yes, because they corrupt the young, persuading them that the mature world, which produced Beethoven and Schweitzer, sets an even higher value on the transient anodynes of youth than does youth itself.... They are the Hollow Men. They are electronic lice.

...the essential intention is the real sin. A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man.

I was cured all right.

If you expect the worst from a person you can never be disappointed.

The writer's life seethes within but not without.

With both agents and publishers hungry for bestsellers, literature will have to end up as a cottage industry.

If you expect the worst from a person, you can't ever be disappointed... The pessimist takes a sort of gloomy pleasure in observing the depths to which human behaviour can sink. The more sin he sees, the more his belief in Original Sin is confirmed. Everyone likes to have his deepest convictions confirmed; that is one of the most abiding of human satisfaction.