A writer is in the broadest sense a spokesman of his community. Through him that community comes to know its heart. Without such knowledge, how long can it survive?

We are funny creatures. We don't see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire.

I have, perhaps, a slave-like constitution which is too easily restrained by bonds; it then becomes rebellious and bursts out in a comic revolution.

My face too blind, my mind too limited, my instincts too narrow. But this intensity, doesn't it mean anything?

Strict seriousness was far more dangerous than any joke.

There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as one can. The best argument is an undeniably good book.

With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.