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.

Too much detail is apt, like any other form of extravagance, to become slightly vulgar.

The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire.

I tell you there is such a thing as creative hate.

Old men are like that, you know. It makes them feel important to think they are in love with somebody.

A watch is the most essential part of a lecture.

William Tavener never heeded ominous forecasts in the domestic horizon, and he never looked for a storm until it broke.