To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.

We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

When a woman isn’t beautiful, people always say, “You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.”

When you depict sad or unlucky people, and want to touch the reader’s heart, try to be colder—it gives their grief, as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief. As it is, your heroes weep and you sigh. Yes, you must be cold.

YOU ASK ME WHAT LIFE IS. THAT’S LIKE ASKING WHAT A CARROT IS. A CARROT IS A CARROT, AND THERE’S NOTHING MORE TO KNOW.

You must once and for all give up being worried about successes and failures. Don’t let that concern you. It’s your duty to go on working steadily day by day, quite steadily, to be prepared for mistakes, which are inevitable, and for failures.

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.