If we pretend to respect the artist at all, we must allow him his freedom of choice, in the face, in particular cases, of innumerable presumptions that the choice will not fructify. Art derives a considerable part of its beneficial exercise from flying in the face of presumptions.

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.

Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.