The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.

It is a good deal easier for most people to state an abstract idea than to describe and thus re-create some object they actually see.

The type of mind that can understand good fiction is not necessarily the educated mind, but it is at all times the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality, and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.

It's easier to bleed than sweat, Mr. Motes.

I am interested in making up a good case for distortion, as I am coming to believe it is the only way to make people see.

At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily.

We are now living in an age which doubts both fact and value. It is the life of this age that we wish to see and judge.