The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
I've always expected the worst, and it's always worse than I expected.
Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of 'liking' a work of art or not liking it; the more improved criticism will not abolish that primitive, that ultimate, test.
One doesn't defend one's god: one's god is in himself a defense.
I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse.
..her smile, which was her pretty feature, was never so pretty as when her sprightly phrase had a scratch lurking in it.