I always want to know the things one shouldn't do." "So as to do them?" asked her aunt. "So as to choose." said Isabel

He was there or was not there: not there if I didn't see him.

Every good story is of course both a picture and an idea, and the more they are interfused the better.

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all.

If the artist is necessarily sensitive, does that sensitiveness form in its essence a state constantly liable to shade off into the morbid? Does this liability, moreover, increase in proportion as the effort is great and the ambition intense?

All the same don't forget that you're young — blessedly young; be glad of it on the contrary and live up to it. Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.

To live in the world of creation-to get into it and stay in it-to frequent it and haunt it...to think intently and fruitfully, to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation-this is the only thing.