It is with pain that I read of the dire effects of my book upon the minds of young girls.

Of poets I put Virgil first - he was greatest.

One must always say things that aim to interest, because in the world one must after all pay for one's keep.

I began to be a woman at twelve, or more properly, a genius.

Are there many things in this cool-hearted world so utterly exquisite as the pure love of one woman for another woman?

Well, if I am not vulgar, neither is my book. I wrote myself. Suggestiveness is always vulgar. But truth never. My book is not even remotely suggestive. I call things by their names. That is all.

The highest thing one can do in literature is to succeed in saying that thing which one meant to say. There is nothing better than that - to make the world see your thoughts as you see them.