For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.

An art is only great and significant if it is one that all may enjoy. The art of a clique is but a plaything.

It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.

Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.

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

A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.

It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all.