Plot and melodrama were in every life; in some so briefly as hardly to be recognized, in others-in that of certain men and women in the public eye, for instance-they were almost in the nature of a continuous performance.

Our impulses are our birthright. To alter personality would be unjust, almost criminal, for the impulses that make a fool or worse of us in certain circumstances may be necessary for our happiness.

The grief of childhood is terrible while it lasts, it is so abandoned and so all-possessing.

We never care to know new people unless we are sure we shall like them.

genius must ever be imperfect. Life is not long enough nor slow enough for both brain and character to grow side by side to superhuman proportions.

Writing was my real life and I was more at home with the people of my imagination than with the best I met in the objective world.

The very commonplaces of life are components of its eternal mystery.