It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave.

Books have to be read (worse luck it takes so long a time). It is the only way of discovering what they contain. A few savage tribes eat them, but reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to the West.

The sadness of the incomplete, the sadness that is often Life, but should never be Art.

It is easy to sympathize at a distance,' said an old gentleman with a beard. 'I value more the kind word that is spoken close to my ear.

Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.

To trust people is a luxury in which only the wealthy can indulge; the poor cannot afford it.

Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.