You must be prepared to work always without applause.

I didn't want to kiss you goodbye — that was the trouble — I wanted to kiss you good night — and there's a lot of difference.

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.

I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it.

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.

Only that which makes you feel bad after doing is immoral.

If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.