Were it possible for us to wait for ourselves to come into the room, not many of us would find our hearts breaking into flower as we heard the door handle turn.

The Portrait of a Lady is entirely successful in giving one the sense of having met somebody far too radiantly good for this world.

Without doubt cats are intellectuals who have been, by some mysterious decree of Providence, deprived of the comfort of the word.

The mind is its own enemy, that fights itself with the innumerable pliant and ineluctable arms of the octopus.

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.

All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.

All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.