 All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears. |
| We all drew on the comfort which is given out by the major works of Mozart, which is as real and material as the warmth given up by a glass of brandy. |
| I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat. |
| The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. |
| Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind. |
| Great music is in a sense serene; it is certain of the values it asserts. |
| Humanity is never more sphinxlike than when it is expressing itself. |
| I write books to find out about things. |
| A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned things is ample. |
| Nobody likes having salt rubbed into their wounds, even if it is the salt of the earth. |
| There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all. |
| It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk. |
| It is always one's virtues and not one's vices that precipitate one into disaster. |
| People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. |
| But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example. |
| There is no wider gulf in the universe than yawns between those on the hither and thither side of vital experience. |
| Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs. |
| I wonder if we are all wrong about each other, if we are just composing unwritten novels about the people we meet? |
| Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience. |
| The memory, experiencing and re-experiencing, has such power over one's mere personal life, that one has merely lived. |
