Adventures do occur, but not punctually.

It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven.

Freedom does not guarantee masterpieces.

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

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.

People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness.

A novel is based on evidence, + or -x, the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it entirely.