I felt that I was leaving part of myself behind, and that wherever I went afterwards I should feel the lack of it, and search for it hopelessly, as ghosts are said to do, frequenting the spots where they buried material treasures without which they cannot pay their way to the nether world.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

... the understatement, the self-ridicule, the delight in the foreignness of foreigners, the complete denial of any attempt to enlist the sympathies of his readers in the hardships he has capriciously invited.

Remember that, however patient your study, you will never in adult life learn any language perfectly; the best you can hope for is to be a bore.

There's only one great evil in the world today. Despair.

If one's object is ascetic, it is far better to stay in London or Paris or New York; there is practically no extreme of heat or cold, physical risk, loneliness, hunger or thirst that cannot, with a little ingenuity, be conveniently achieved in the centres of civilization.

There is practically no sense that is not violated every time we return from the country or the sea to Paris or London or New York.