The lesson one can learn from Firbank is that of inconsequence. There is the vein which he tapped and which has not yet been fully exploited.

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.

Green leaves on a dead tree is our epitaph-green leaves, dear reader, on a dead tree.

There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.

We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.

While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

Imagination is a holy impressions.

When I write I like to give equal justice to lyrics, too. I want the song to have meaning for me so I can make it have meaning for the audience.

I want my writing to bring people not just to think of "trees" as they mostly do now, but of each individual tree, and each kind of tree.

Except the Christ be born again tonightIn dreams of all men, saints and sons of shame, The world will never see his kingdom bright.

We're the best team in baseball. But not by much.

Man is made to create, from the poet to the potter.

The reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing.

Some girls are just born with glitter in their veins.

Anyone who believes a growth rate in excess of 15% per annum over the long term is attainable should pursue a career in sales, but avoid one in mathematics.

I remember when being liberal meant being generous with your own money.