A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.

Some people would rather have a lie that makes them smile than a truth that makes them cry. I'm the opposite; I'd rather have people make me cry with the truth than try to make me smile.

I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use -- silence, exile, and cunning.

Life should be great rather than long.

I'd rather lose an argument than get into a long discussion in order to win it.

A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.