If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can.

Menfolks listens to somebody because of what he says. Women don't. They don't care what he said. They listens because of what he is.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

If a story is in you, it has to come out.

The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies.

I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tideflats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off.

The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.