"There is no disputing about tastes," says the old saw. In my experience there is little else.

These matters require what I think of as the Shakespearean cast of thought. That is to say, a fine credulity about everything, kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything.... It keeps you constantly alert to every possibility.

No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.

She has been kissed as often as a police-court Bible, and by much the same class of people.

The dog is a yes-animal. Very popular with people who can't afford a yes man.

To ask an author who hopes to be a serious writer if his work is autobiographical is like asking a spider where he buys his thread. The spider gets his thread right out of his own guts, and that is where the author gets his writing.

The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced the writer.