Don't run down dyed hair and painted faces. There is an extraordinary charm in them, sometimes.

The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.

It is a very dangerous thing to know one’s friends.

And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, The hand that held the steel: For only blood can wipe out blood, And only tears can heal

A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection.

As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.

My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain.