“It seems to me that someone must surely take the hint and write the life of Miss McGeeney, the woman who wrote the biography of the man who wrote the biography of the man who wrote the biography of the man who wrote the biography of Boswell.”

“Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.”

“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”

“I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.”

“Memoirs give the knowledge about the author and his environment. They are different from biography. Memoirs do not get ahead, and the man who writes a biography looks at his future like at a very simple thing.”

“Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.”

“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.”