If I should certainly say to a novice, ‘Write from experience and experience only,’ I should feel that this was rather a tantalizing monition if I were not careful immediately to add, ‘Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost.’
HENRY JAMESYou wanted to look at life for yourself – but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish.
More Henry James Quotes
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To take what there is in life and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived, to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that; this, doubtless, is the right way to live.
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I’ve always expected the worst, and it’s always worse than I expected.
HENRY JAMES -
It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.
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The main object of the novel is to represent life. . .
HENRY JAMES -
Live as you like best and your character will take care of itself.
HENRY JAMES -
Never say you know the last word about any human heart.
HENRY JAMES -
I take up my own pen again – the pen of all my old unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles.
HENRY JAMES -
Every good story is of course both a picture and an idea, and the more they are interfused the better.
HENRY JAMES -
And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.
HENRY JAMES -
Cats and monkeys; monkeys and cats; all human life is there.
HENRY JAMES -
Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else.
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And remember this, that if you’ve been hated, you’ve also been loved.
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To 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 JAMES -
Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to.
HENRY JAMES -
Make the short story tremendously succinct – with a very short pulse or rhythm – and the closest selection of detail.
HENRY JAMES