“The only moral it is possible to draw from this story is that one should never throw the Q letter into a privet bush, but unfortunately there are times when it is unavoidable.”

“The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.”

“Stories are the only enchantment possible, for when we begin to see our suffering as a story, we are saved.”

“If suffering were an unavoidable part of our existence, we should try to alleviate it as far as possible in practical, earthly ways.”

“Only one letter divides the comic from the cosmic.”

“.. learn to draw: that's where most of you [Troyon's pupils] are falling down today…. draw with all your might; you can never learn to much. However, don’t neglect painting, go to the country from time to time and make studies and above all develop them..' [Monet is quoting in his letter Troyon, a friend of Boudin in Paris]”

“The moral of human life is never simple, and the moral of a story which aims only at being true to human life cannot be expected to be any more so.”

“When one is writing a letter, he should think that the recipient will make it into a hanging scroll.”

“Ducking for apples -- change one letter and it's the story of my life.”

“No, they never expected or sensed the wishes of that omniscient narrator who, at times, wondered, accompanied by a glass of cabernet, about how his story should be constructed, how this story should develop.”