life is a succession of readjustments.

I can't see or feel the conflict between love and religion. To me, they're the same thing.

A Bowen, in the first place, made Bowen's Court. Since then, with a rather alarming sureness, Bowen's Court has made all the succeeding Bowens.

Roughly, the action of a character should be unpredictable before it has been shown, inevitable when it has been shown. In the first half of a novel, the unpredictability should be the more striking. In the second half, the inevitability should be the more striking.

...the power-loving temperament is more dangerous when it either prefers or is forced to operate in what is materially a void. Wehave everything to dread from the dispossessed.

The novel does not simply recount experience, it adds to experience.

Almost everyone admits to hunger during the Opera.... Hunger is so exalting that during a last act you practically levitate.