More than half of modern culture depends upon what one shouldn't read.

I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it.

If it took Labouchere three columns to prove that I was forgotten, then there is no difference between fame and obscurity.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it. To the great poet, there is only one method of music - his own. To the great painter, there is only one manner of painting - that which he himself employs. The aesthetic critic, and the aesthetic critic alone, can appreciate all forms and all modes. It is to him that Art makes her appeal.

Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry.

I like my food dry. Not sick, not even dying, dead.