No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. ... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.

Most people are such fools that it is really no great compliment to say that someone is above the average.

You must not pursue a success, but fly from it.

No action is in itself good or bad, but only such according to convention.

There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort.

A man filled with meat turns his back on the dry bones of political doctrine. Fanatical devotion to the ruling party comes more readily from the materially deprived At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

If only the good were a little less heavy-footed