The true work of art is the one which the seventh wave of genius throws up the beach where the undertow of time cannot drag it back.

It is a mistake to expect good work from expatriates for it is not what they do that matters but what they are not doing.

A great writer created a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it. A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon he will watch them filing out.

Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learned to walk.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication.

The English language is like a broad river on whose bank a few patient anglers are sitting, while, higher up, the stream is being polluted by a string of refuse-barges tipping out their muck.