Make the short story tremendously succinct – with a very short pulse or rhythm – and the closest selection of detail.
HENRY JAMESMake the short story tremendously succinct – with a very short pulse or rhythm – and the closest selection of detail.
HENRY JAMESYoung men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.
HENRY JAMESHer imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out the window.
HENRY JAMESTo myself – today – I need say no more. Large and full and high the future still opens. It is now indeed that I may do the work of my life. And I will.
HENRY JAMESUnder certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
HENRY JAMESIt’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.
HENRY JAMESI am incapable of telling you not to feel. Feel, feel, I say – feel for all you’re worth, and even if it half kills you, for that is the only way to live.
HENRY JAMESI don’t care anything about reasons, but I know what I like.
HENRY JAMESSummer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
HENRY JAMESTo live in the world of creation-to get into it and stay in it-to frequent it and haunt it…to think intently and fruitfully, to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation-this is the only thing.
HENRY JAMESLife is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day.
HENRY JAMESWe must know, as much as possible, in our beautiful art…what we are talking about and the only way to know is to have lived and loved and cursed and floundered and enjoyed and suffered.
HENRY JAMESIf one is strong, one loves the more strongly.
HENRY JAMESIn art economy is always beauty.
HENRY JAMESThe power to guess the unseen from the seen, to trace the implications of things, to judge the whole piece by the pattern . . . this cluster of gifts may almost be said to constitute experience.
HENRY JAMESI hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort.
HENRY JAMES