To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.

I have said that each aspect of the novel demands a different quality of the reader. Well, the prophetic aspect demands two qualities: humility and the suspension of the sense of humour.

There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy.

The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken.

There are occasions when I would rather feel like a fly than a spider.

This desire to govern a woman -- it lies very deep, and men and women must fight it together.... But I do love you surely in a better way then he does." He thought. "Yes -- really in a better way. I want you to have your own thoughts even when I hold you in my arms.

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.