The dilemma of the critic has always been that if he knows enough to speak with authority, he knows too much to speak with detachment.

One would think a writer would be happy here — if a writer is ever happy anywhere.

A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously enough. I think I might be the first to admit that the sort of reticence which prevents a man from exploiting his own personality is really an inverted sort of egotism.

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.

I always find what I want. But when I find it, I don't want it any more.