But my belief is growing that our political and social evils are remediable, if only all of us who want a change for the better just get up and work for it, all the time, with as much knowledge and intelligence as we can muster for it. Half the wrongs of human life exist because of the inertia of people who simply will not use their energies in fighting for what they believe in. And finally the wrongs roll up into world catastrophes and millions of deaths and a terrible set-back for all mankind.

Even St. Teresa said, "I can pray better when I'm comfortable," and she refused to wear her haircloth shirt or starve herself. I don't think living in cellars and starving is better for an artist than it is for anybody else.

First impressions are often signals from the deep that we should credit oftener than we do.

Life is a game of piquet played in a bramble bush in very bad weather.

The greatest art comes out of warmth and conviction and deep feeling, but then, very few people, even geniuses, have all that.

Most people won't realise that writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else.

Be bold, and try not to fall in love with your faults. Don't be so afraid of giving yourself away, either, for if yo write, you must. And if you can't face that, better not write.