"The English novels are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. But one should not be too severe on them. They show a want of knowledge that must be the result of years of study."
"When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it."
"Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life."
"One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead."
"True friends stab you in the front."
"Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one's reason; bad people stir one's imagination."