Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality.

The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot.

When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.

The parlour cars and Pullmans are packed also with scented assassins, salad-eaters who murder on milk.

Get up very early and get going at once. In fact, work first and wash afterwards.

I'm always amazed at the American practice of allowing one party to a homosexual act to remain passive--it's so undemocratic. Sexmust be mutual.

It's frightfully important for a writer to be his age, not to be younger or older than he is. One might ask, "What should I write at the age of sixty-four," but never, "What should I write in 1940."