We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.' Didn't you mean them?' At the moment.

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.

But I am not sure it would contain any short stories. For the short story is a minor art, and it must content itself with moving, exciting and amusing the reader. ...I do not think that there is any (short story) that will give the reader that thrill, that rapture, that fruitful energy which great art can produce.

You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.