[On writing:] The most egotistic of occupations, and the most gratifying while it lasts.

Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel.

It is no good my telling you. One never believes other people's experiencem and one is only very gradually convinced by one's own.

Days I enjoy are days when nothing happens, When I have no engagements written on my block, When no one comes to disturb my inward peace, When no one comes to take me away from myself And turn me into a patchwork, a jig-saw puzzle, A broken mirror that once gave a whole reflection, Being so contrived that it takes too long a time To get myself back to myself when they have gone.

The writer catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind.

Violence, passion, indignation, loyalty, integrity, incorruptibility, shameless egoism, generosity, excitability, energy, a hundred horse-power drive - none of it very subtle: Ethel [Smyth] didn't deal in pastel shades, she went for the stronger colors, the blood-red, anything deep and pumping out of the arteries of the heart.

I have come to the conclusion, after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.