Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.

When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder - that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. Yes, be more cold. ... The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make.

My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.

It is as acceptable now to love the wives of others as it is to smoke their cigars and read their books.

Our pride and self-importance are European, while our development and actions are Asiatic.

Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.

My mistress has come home; at last I've seen her. Now I'm ready to die.