Any book has behind it all the other books that have been written.

For the serious artist does not satisfy needs

Elgar is not manic enough to be Russian, not witty or pointilliste enough to be French, not harmonically simple enough to be Italian and not stodgy enough to be German. We arrive at his Englishry by pure elimination.

A man can write one book that can be great, but this doesn't make him a great writer-just the writer of a great book. . . I think a writer has to extend very widely, as well as plunge very deep, to be a great novelist.

Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.

Art is rare and sacred and hard work, and there ought to be a wall of fire around it.

The unconscious mind has a habit of asserting itself in the afternoon.