[London] is sentimental and tolerant. The attitude to foreigners is like the attitude to dogs: Dogs are neither human nor British, but so long as you keep them under control, give them their exercise, feed them, pat them, you will find their wild emotions are amusing, and their characters interesting.

It's all in the art. You get no credit for living.

A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.

Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing.

I shall never be as old as I was between 20 and 30.

The profoundly humorous writers are humorous because they are responsive to the hopeless, uncouth, concatenations of life.

How extraordinary it is that one feels most guilt about the sins one is unable to commit.