"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?"

"Thank goodness you're a failure-- it's why I so distinguish you! Anything else to-day is too hideous. Look about you--look at the successes. Would you BE one, on your honour?"

"We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."

"Deep experience is never peaceful."

"It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature."

"I feel how little she can like being told of her owing me anything. No woman ever enjoys such an obligation to another woman."

"A husband is like a fire, he goes out when unattended."

"The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions."

"The only way to be truly misogynistic is to be a woman."

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

"When the Black Camel comes for me, I'm not going to go kicking and screaming. I am, however, going to try to talk my way out of it. 'No, no, you want the other Walter Slovotsky.'"