“Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”

I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I’ll soon be right.

It is, I admit, mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth?

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

There are no fools so troublesome as those who have some wit.

There’s a light in a woman’s eyes that speaks louder than words.

Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

I wanted to end the world, but I’ll settle for ending yours.

It’s every man’s business to see justice done.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.

I am a brain, The rest of me is a mere appendix.

We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere common places of existence.

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.

There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of the mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Only the very greatest art invigorates without consoling.

Inspire me with love for my art and for thy creatures. In the sufferer let me see only the human being.

An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.

It is easier for women to succeed in business, the arts, and politics in America than in Europe.

What one does in one’s art, that is the breath of one’s being. What one does in one’s life, that is a bagatelle for the outsiders to fuss about.

I’m an artist. I produce, I direct, and all of that goes into the music.

I want first and foremost to help other artists, launch new names, to provide opportunities. I want to do for them what happened to me, but better.