... in nine out of ten cases the original wish to write is the wish to make oneself felt[ellipsis in source] the non-essential writer never gets past that wish.

Habit, of which passion must be wary, may all the same be the sweetest part of love.

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.

without fiction, either life would be insufficient or the winds from the north would blow too cold.

The silence of a shut park does not sound like country silence: it is tense and confined.

whenever possible I avoid talking. Reprieve from talking is my idea of a holiday. At risk of seeming unsociable, which I am, I admit I love to be left in a beatific trance, when I am in one. Friendly Romans recognize that wish.

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