Words have basic inalienable meanings, departure from which is either conscious metaphor or inexcusable vulgarity.

Don't give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can't express them. Don't analyze yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.

O God, make me good, but not yet.

Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums who find prison so soul-destroying.

There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.

One has to regard a man as a Master who can produce on average three uniquely brilliant and entirely original similes to every page.

The splendid thing about education is that everyone wants it. Like influenza, you can give it away without losing any of it yourself.