"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul."

"You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences."

"The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill."

"The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected."

"You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism."

"Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long."

"Have common sense and stick to the point."

"Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it."

"Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable."

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

"No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul."

"In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time."

"There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless."

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

"Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets."

"Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull."

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me."

"The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency."

"I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ."

"My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror."

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

"The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety."

"You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance."

"People ask for criticism, but they only want praise."

"Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind."

"Tolerance is another word for indifference."

"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit."

"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person."

"The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind."

"Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five."

"Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all."

"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit."

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

"An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones."

"It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know.""

"Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist."

"Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way."

"Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it."

"It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise."

"Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved."

"It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection."

"It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is."

"Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother."

"Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less."

"When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right."

"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered."

"The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress."

"The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes."

"Writing is the supreme solace."