I know magicians and I know magic and I say this: all magicians lie and this one more than most.

He gave her his heart. She took it and placed it quietly in the pocket of her gown. No one observed what she did.

Bryon tilted his head to a very odd angle, half-closed his eyes and composed his features to suggest that he was about to expire from chronic indigestion.

But, though French, she was also very brave.

Lovers are rarely the most rational beings in creation.

Perhaps I am too tame, too domestic a magician. But how does one work up a little madness? I meet with mad people every day in the street, but I never thought before to wonder how they got mad. Perhaps I should go wandering on lonely moors and barren shores. That is always a popular place for lunatics - in novels and plays at any rate. Perhaps wild England will make me mad.

A piece of writing is like a piece of magic. You create something out of nothing.