Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.

People in a novel can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist can be understood completely by the reader, if the novelist wishes; their inner as well as their outer life can be exposed.

Our easiest approach to a definition of any aspect of fiction is always by considering the sort of demand it makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of value for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot. What does fantasy ask of us? It asks us to pay something extra.

The hungry and the homeless don't care about liberty any more than they care about cultural heritage. To pretend that they do care is cant.

The bully and his victim never quite forget their first relations.

He had shown her all the workings of his soul, mistaking this for love.

Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden. It is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.