Take an old man's word; there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Death and Fate, and the things that sound so dreadful. It is on my muddles that I look back with horror - on the things that I might have avoided. We can help one another but little. I used to think I could teach young people the whole of life, but I know better now, and all my teaching of George has come down to this: beware of muddle.

Passion does not blind. No. Passion is sanity, and the woman you love, she is the only person you will ever really understand.

A critic has no right to the narrowness which is the frequent prerogative of the creative artist.

I really don't know what happens next -- one so seldom does.

We may divide characters into flat and round.

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.

Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.