The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

As I take up my pen I feel myself so full, so equal to my subject, and see my book so clearly before me in embryo, I would almost like to try to say it all in a single word.

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

From the point of view of literature Mr. Kipling is a genius who drops his aspirates. From the point of view of life, he is a reporter who knows vulgarity better than any one has ever known it.

The trade of authorship is a violent, and indestructible obsession.

This is something that I cannot get over -- that a whole line could be written by half a man, that a work could be built on the quicksand of a character.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again -- as I always am when I write.

One gains universal applause who mingles the useful with the agreeable, at once delighting and instructing the reader.

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

Most authors steal their works, or buy.