When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.

Everything which is good in me should be credited to books.

There is no one on earth more disgusting and repulsive than he who gives alms. Even as there is no one so miserable as he who accepts them.

Writers build castles in the air, the reader lives inside, and the publisher inns the rent.

Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself.

What 'jazz' means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term 'jazz' has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians.

Silence is terrible and painful only to those who have said all and have nothing more to speak of; but to those who never had anything to say— to them silence is simple and easy.