“Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.”

“...photographs of girl-children; some gaudy moth or butterfly, still alive, safely pinned to the wall.”

“do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation”

“Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.”

“To begin with, let us take the following motto...Literature is Love. Now we can continue.”

“Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art.”

“Literature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the brain — the brain, that stomach of the soul. Literature must be taken and broken to bits, pulled apart, squashed — then its lovely reek will be smelt in the hollow of the palm, it will be munched and rolled upon the tongue with relish; then, and only then, its rare flavor will be appreciated at its true worth and the broken and crushed parts will again come together in your mind and disclose the beauty of a unity to which you have contributed something of your own blood.”