I do not begin my novel at the beginning, I do not reach chapter three before I reach chapter four, I do not go dutifully from one page to the next, in consecutive order; no, I pick out a bit here and a bit there, till I have filled all the gaps on paper. This is why I like writing my stories and novels on index cards, numbering them later when the whole set is complete. Every card is rewritten many times.

My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.

My God died young. Theolatry i found Degrading, and its premises, unsound. No free man needs God; but was I free?

Age indomitably, in the European manner. Do not finish your labours young. Be a planet, not a meteor. Honor the working day. Sit at your desk.

Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution.

We loved each other with a premature love, marked by a fierceness that so often destroys adult lives.

Here lies the sense of literary creation to portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in kindly mirrors of future times. . . . To find in objects around us the fragrant tenderness that only posterity will discern . . .