Scott Fitzgerald Gray

“Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.”
― Joseph Conrad

“The mystery of esthetic like that of material creation is accomplished. The artist, like the god of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

“Words... They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good any more... I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

“As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.”
― Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise