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.

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

Art, at any rate in a novel, must be indissolubly linked with craft.

Solitary and farouche people don't have relationships; they are quite unrelatable. If you and I were capable of being altogether house-trained and made jolly, we should be nicer people, but not writers.

nobody ever dies of an indignity.

No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.

We desert those who desert us; we cannot afford to suffer; we must live how we can.