The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.

Illusions are like umbrellas - you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

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.