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.

If you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.

One learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence.

Art is wine and experience is the brandy we distill from it.

A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.

Imagination is a good horse to carry you over the ground - not a flying carpet to set you free from probability.

I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it is always twisting and turning, and sometimes shedding its skin, like the serpent that is [the doctors'] symbol.