The writer is more concerned to know than to judge

It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

You can never know enough about your characters

A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely