I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul

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

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.