Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them.

Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it.

Only mediocre people are at the best all the time.

No woman is worth more than a fiver unless you're in love with her. Then she's worth all she costs you.

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

Look after your laundry, and your soul will look after itself.