The only advice ... that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.

What I like, or one of the things I like, about motoring is the sense it gives one of lighting accidentally, like a voyager who touches another planet with the tip of his toe, upon scenes which would have gone on, have always gone on, will go on, unrecorded, save for this chance glimpse. Then it seems to me I am allowed to see the heart of the world uncovered for a moment.

In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.

A writer should give direct certainty; explanations are so much water poured into the wine.

London perpetually attracts, stimulates, gives me a play and a story and a poem, without any trouble, save that of moving my legs through the streets... To walk alone through London is the greatest rest.

... why do people who live in the country always give themselves such airs?

I do not want to be admired. I want to give, to be given, and solitude in which to unfold my possessions.

The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mold of the body and mind.

Methinks the human method of expression by sound of tongue is very elementary, and ought to be substituted for some ingenious invention which should be able to give vent to at least six coherent sentences at once.