Henry James
American novelist and critic
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
—Henry James, American novelist and critic, quoted in Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance, 1934
Posted on March 28, 2000 at 7:38 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The war has used up words; they have weakened, they have deterioriated like motor-car tyres; they have like millions of other things, been more overstrained and knocked about and voided of the happy semblance during the last six months than in all the long ages before, and we are now confronted with a depreciation of all our terms, or otherwise speaking, with a loss of expression through increase of limpness, that may well make us wonder what ghosts will be left to walk.
—Henry James, American novelist and critic, The New York Times, March 21, 1915
Posted on July 25, 2000 at 6:38 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
His life was that of a pearl-diver, breathless in the thick element while he groped for the priceless word, and condemned to plunge again and again.
—Henry James, American novelist and critic, Gustave Flaubert, 1893
Posted on September 28, 1999 at 9:20 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
I'm glad you like adverbs — I adore them; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.
—Henry James, American novelist and critic, The Letters of Henry James, 1912
Posted on January 22, 1999 at 11:04 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.
—Henry James, American novelist and critic, Henry James at Work, 1924
Posted on February 16, 1999 at 11:01 AM
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