“No one who loves life can ignore literature, and no one who loves literature can ignore life.”

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”

“To be ignorant of the future is a condition of mortal existence, with which one can make terms. To be ignorant of the present, where it concerns the life of those one loves, is an additional burden almost beyond endurance.”

“To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat— some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself. This isn't the case with literature. Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse.”

“Anyone who is ignorant, even a lord and prince, can and should be counted as one of the mob.”

“Was it love of people?' I asked her.'Of course no,' she snapped sharply. 'How can you love ignorant, brutish people whom you don't even know? Can anyone love filth and squalor? Or lice and rats? Who can love aching weariness, and carry on working, in spite of it? One cannot love these things. One can only love God, and through His grace come to love His people.”