Sara could commit adultery at one end and weep for her sins at the other, and enjoy both operations at once.

No one can estimate the power of authority among poor and uneducated people in a world whose problems confuse even the wisest.

Nothing like poetry when you lie awake at night. It keeps the old brain limber. It washes away the mud and sand that keeps on blocking up the bends. Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors. And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.

The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer

A perfect God is the creation of a conceited man

I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience.

Something you have to make...It's all work, work.