I felt the beginning of a passion, hopeless in the long run, but very nourishing, for identifying myself with people who were not my own, and whose lives were governed by ideas alien to mine.

Those mausoleums of inactive masculinity are places for men who prefer armchairs to women.

Some writers thrive on the contact with the commerce of success; others are corrupted by it. Perhaps, like losing one's virginity,it is not as bad (or as good) as one feared it was going to be.

Writing enlarges the landscape of the mind.

It's very important to feel foreign. I was born in England, but when I'm being a writer, everyone in England is foreign to me.

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.

On one plane, the very great writers and the popular romancers of the lower order always meet. They use all of themselves, helplessly, unselectively. They are above the primness and good taste of declining to give themselves away.