I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

A good writer preserves an air of freedom in his prose, so that the reader won't know how a story will end - even if he's reading a history book.

The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.

Everybody's talking about people breaking into houses but there are more people in the world who want to break out of houses.

Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.