The craft of the novelist does lie first of all in story-telling.

life is a succession of readjustments.

Everything is very quiet, the streets are never crowded, and the people one dislikes are out of town.

The innocent are so few that two of them seldom meet - when they do meet, their victims lie strewn all round.

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

Story involves action. Action towards an end not to be foreseen (by the reader) but also towards an end which, having been reached, must be seen to have been from the start inevitable.

... any fictionis bound to be transposed autobiography.