Love, she thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings,--a hurricane of the skies, which falls upon life, revolutionises it, roots up the will like a leaf, and sweeps the whole heart into the abyss.

In my view, the novelist has no right to express his opinions on the things of this world. In creating, he must imitate God: do his job and then shut up.

A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.