[The satirist] must fully possess, at least in the world of the imagination, the quality the lack of which he is deriding in others.

... to lovers innumerable things do not matter.

All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretence that pain is the proper price of any good thing.

I really write to find out what I know about something and what is to be known about something.

Music is part of human life and partakes of the human tragedy. There is much more music in the world than is allowed to change into heard sounds and prove its point.

Anthologies are mischievous things. Some years ago there was a rage for chemically predigested food, which was only suppressed when doctors pointed out that since human beings had been given teeth and digestive organs they had to be used or they degenerated very rapidly. Anthologies are predigested food for the brain.

An audience proves its discipline by its capacity for stillness. Those who have never practiced continuous application to an exacting process cannot settle down to simple watching; they must chew gum, they must dig the peel off their oranges, they must shift from foot to foot, from buttock to buttock.