In a few hours one could cover that incalculable distance; from the winter country and homely neighbours, to the city where the air trembled like a tuning-fork with unimaginable possibilities.

The great fact in life, the always possible escape from dullness, was the lake. The sun rose out of it, the day began there; it was like an open door that nobody could shut. The land and all its dreariness could never close in on you. You had only to look at the lake, and you knew you would soon be free.

The irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand.

Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.

Let people go on talking as they like, and we will go on living as we think best.

Youth, art, love, dreams, true-heartedness - why must they go out of the summer world into darkness?

If [the writer] achieves anything noble, anything enduring, it must be by giving himself absolutely to his material. And this gift of sympathy is his great gift; is the fine thing in him that alone can make his work fine.