Woe to him who doesn't know how to wear his mask, be he king or pope!

When a character is born, he acquires at once such an independence, even of his own author, that he can be imagined by everybody even in many other situations where the author never dreamed of placing him; and so he acquires for himself a meaning which the author never thought of giving him.

Each of us, face to face with other men, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go on in the heart.

When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.

One cannot choose what he writes - one can only choose to face it.

None of us can estimate what we do when we do it from instinct.

The secret of living is to find a pivot, the pivot of a concept on which you can make your stand.