Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is.

Lully's machine, Mill's fear and Lasswitz's chaotic library can be the subject of jokes, but they exaggerate a propensity which is common: making metaphysics and the arts into a kind of play with combinations.

The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.

Reality is partial to symmetry and slight anachronisms

That is what always happens: we never know whether we are victors or whether we are defeated.

He constructed a vast labyrinthine of periods, made impassable by the piling-up of clauses upon clauses-clauses in which oversight and bad grammar seemed manifestations of disdain.

Art is very mysterious. I wonder if you can really do any damage to art. I think that when we're writing, something comes through or should come through, in spite of our theories. So theories are not really important.