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Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.Vice and virtue are the artist’s materials for an art. From the point of view of form, th...more

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No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpa...more

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When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.

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In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

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Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.

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A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.

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Would you like to know the great drama of my life? It is that I have put my genius into my life...I have put only my talent into my works.

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This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again.

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The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

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I wrote when I did not know life;now that I know life, I have no more to say.

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Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul.

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The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.

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Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful t...more

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You talk books away," he said; "why don't you write one?" "I am too fond of reading books to care to write them, Mr. Erskine. I should like to write a...more