All art is the struggle to be, in a particular sort of way, virtuous.

Of course men play roles, but women play roles too, blanker ones. They have, in the play of life, fewer good lines.

We must live by the light of our own self-satisfaction, through that secret vital busy inwardness which is even more remarkable than our reason.

Of course reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too.

I live, I live, with an absolutely continuous sense of failure. I am always defeated, always. Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea. The years pass and one has only one life. If one has a thing at all one must do it and keep on and on and on trying to do it better.

A death is the most terrible of facts.

The entry of a child into any situation changes the whole situation.