We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.

Originality and creativity are nothing but the result of the wise management of combinations. The creative genius combines more rapidly, and with a greater critical sense of what gets tossed out and what gets saved, the same material that the failed genius has to work with.

I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing.

If photography is to be likened to perception, this is not because the former is a natural process but because the latter is also coded.

Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message.

I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it.

An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.