We 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 JAMESHe is the same old sausage, fizzing and sputtering in his own grease.
More Henry James Quotes
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If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
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In other words summarise intensely and deeply and keep down the lateral development. It should be a little gem of bright, quick, vivid form
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True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one’s self; but the point is not only to get out – you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.
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Don’t underestimate the value of irony-it is extremely valuable.
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I mean that everything this afternoon has been too beautiful, and that perhaps everything together will never be so right again. I’m very glad therefore you’ve been a part of it.
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She is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a dazzling brilliancy!
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Don’t pass it by – the immediate, the real, the ours, the yours, the novelist’s that it waits for.
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I would give all I possess to get out of myself; but somehow, at the end, I find myself so vastly more interesting than nine tenths of the people I meet.
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Life 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.
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I’m yours for ever–for ever and ever. Here I stand; I’m as firm as a rock. If you’ll only trust me, how little you’ll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.
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A man who pretends to understand women is bad manners. For him to really to understand them is bad morals.
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We work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
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Life is a predicament which precedes death.
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You wanted to look at life for yourself – but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish.
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I call people rich when they’re able to meet the requirements of their imagination.
HENRY JAMES