Nothing, that is say no one, can be such an inexorable tour-conductor as one's own conscience or sense of duty, if one allows either the upper hand: the self-bullying that goes on in the name of sight-seeing is grievous.

Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.

the process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.

Not only is there no question of solitude, but in the long run we may not choose our company.

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

The story must spring from an impression or perception pressing enough to have made the writer write. It should magnetize the imagination and give pleasure.

But surely love wouldn't get so much talked about if there were not something in it?