A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne

War is something of man's own fostering, and if all mankind renounces it, then it is no longer there.

A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne

A clever conjurer is welcome anywhere, and those of us whose powers of entertainment are limited to the setting of booby-traps or the arranging of apple-pie beds must view with envy the much greater tribute of laughter and applause which is the lot of the prestidigitator with some natural gift for legerdemain.

A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne

A writer wants something more than money for his work: he wants permanence.

A. B. Yehoshua
A. B. Yehoshua

World War II was a trauma that paralysed writers. It was something metaphysical, diabolical.

A. Bartlett Giamatti
A. Bartlett Giamatti

There are a lot of people who know me who can't understand for the life of them why I would got to work on something as unserious as baseball. If they only knew.

A. Bartlett Giamatti
A. Bartlett Giamatti

Some of my academic friends think I've fallen from a very special grace.

A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

A. E. Housman
A. E. Housman

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

A. E. van Vogt
A. E. van Vogt

In those days I was new to covers; merely felt pleased that a story of mine had been honored. I later met Rogers who did some of my early covers and I was impressed with him.

A. E. van Vogt
A. E. van Vogt

But, somewhere in there, I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what I wanted to do; with what has to be done by a writer in order to stay alive as a writer.