To be nothing - is that not, after all, the most satisfactory fact in the whole world?

Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the world.

Neither of us knows what the public will think. There's no doubt in my mind that I have found out how to begin (at forty) to say something in my own voice; and that interests me so that I feel I can go ahead without praise.

Consolation for those moments when you can't tell whether you're the divinest genius or the greatest fool in the world.

Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all be pure

At last she shut the book sharply, lay back, and drew a deep breath, expressive of the wonder which always marks the transition from the imaginary world to the real world.

Nothing induces me to read a novel except when I have to make money by writing about it. I detest them.