Making a living is nothing; the great difficulty is making a point, making a difference-with words.

Boston - wrinkled, spindly-legged, depleted of nearly all her spiritual and cutaneous oils, provincial, self-esteeming - has gone on spending and spending her inflated bills of pure reputation, decade after decade.

[On sociability in Italy:] You may be a hermit or an innkeeper.

the great is seldom a deterrent to the mediocre

Gossip, or, as we gossips like to say, character analysis.

How certain human beings are able to create works of art is a mystery, and why they should wish to do so, at a great cost to themselves usually, is another mystery. Works are not created by one's life; every life is rich in material.

While you are living, part of you has slipped away to the cemetery.