I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.

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.

I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed.

So long as some are strong and some are weak, the weak will be driven to the wall.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'

A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.

I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.