I like manual labor. Whenever I've got waterlogged with study, I've taken a spell of it and found it spiritually invigorating.

From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.

A woman may be as wicked as she likes, but if she isn't pretty it won't do her much good.

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.

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

He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.

In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.