He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.

I spent an hour looking at pots and carpets in the museums the other day, until the desire to describe them became like the desire for the lusts of the flesh.

Dance music ... stirs some barbaric instinct - lulled asleep in our sober lives - you forget centuries of civilization in a second, & yield to that strange passion which sends you madly whirling round the room.

A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.

Travelers are much at the mercy of phrases ... vast generalizations formulate in their exposed brains.

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.

I feel so intensely the delights of shutting oneself up in a little world of one’s own, with pictures and music and everything beautiful.