Others

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

I OWE MY SUCCESS TO HAVING LISTENED RESPECTFULLY… TO THE VERY BEST ADVICE… AND THEN GOING AWAY AND DOING THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

WISDOM IS BETTER THAN WIT, AND IN THE LONG RUN WILL CERTAINLY HAVE THE LAUGH ON HER SIDE.

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

People who are paid to have attitudes toward things, professional critics, make me sick; camp following eunuchs of literature.

I’D RATHER BE HISSED AT FOR A GOOD VERSE, THAN APPLAUDED FOR A BAD ONE.

THE AFTERNOON KNOWS WHAT THE MORNING NEVER SUSPECTED.

I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

SOME EDITORS ARE FAILED WRITERS, BUT SO ARE MOST WRITERS.

AS A SLEUTH YOU ARE POOR. YOU COULDN’T DETECT A BASS-DRUM IN A TELEPHONE-BOOTH.

He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished.

The work of a queasy undergraduate scratching his pimples.

THERE ARE TWO WAYS OF DISLIKING POETRY, ONE WAY IS TO DISLIKE IT, THE OTHER IS TO READ POPE.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

THERE IS ONLY ONE POSITION FOR AN ARTIST ANYWHERE: AND THAT IS, UPRIGHT.

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE ENEMY OF ALL ART, BE IT ACTING, WRITING, PAINTING, OR LIVING ITSELF, WHICH IS THE GREATEST ART OF ALL.

THE HISTORY OF ART IS THE HISTORY OF REVIVALS.

The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.