Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

The best style is the style you don't notice.

The drama is make-believe. It does not deal with truth but with effect.

Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion.

The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]