Sins cut boldly up through every class in society, but mere misdemeanours show a certain level in life.

... artists were intended to be an ornament to society. As a society in themselves they are unthinkable.

It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets.

Education is not so important as people think.

The passion of vanity has its own depths in the spirit, and is powerfully militant.

When you love someone all your saved up wishes start coming out.

Dialogue must appear realistic without being so. Actual realism-the lifting, as it were, of passages from a stenographer's take-down of a 'real life' conversation-would be disruptive. Of what? Of the illusion of the novel. In 'real life' everything is diluted; in the novel everything is condensed.