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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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I've put my genius into my life I've only put my talent into my works.

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There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.The nineteenth century dislike of realism ...more

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The well bred contradict other people. the wise contradict themselves.

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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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It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

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Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.

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The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

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Journalism is unreadable, and literature is unread.

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I'm too old to know everything

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Romantic literature is in effect imaginative lying.

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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.