Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

When the impossible has been eliminated, all that remains no matter how improbable is possible.

You can be a writer who doesn't read everyday. But you're not fooling anyone. It shows, rather embarrassingly, in your work.

No one's gonna give a damn in July if you lost a game in March.

I want to direct. It's something that I know I'll be really good at.

Practice random acts of . . . Grumpiness.

Being a theater actor, I've done a lot of plays where I've seen someone else play the same role in another production. Especially with the classics: Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams.

I love great music and if it doesn't move me I don't listen to it.

Music is everybody's possession.

People think that I'm really untouchable, and that's also translated into a lot of people thinking that I'm super-ungrateful.

Nowadays, everything is so gratuitous. The violence is suggested, and it's much more impactful than showing everything.

Frankly, I'd rather make a little bit less money if it means living in a better world for books and publishing in the future.