Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-born writer. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 April 1843
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
ironic irony underestimate
Don’t underestimate the value of irony—it is extremely valuable.
dream believe night
Take the word for it of a man who has made his way inch by inch, and does not believe that we'll wake up to find our work done because we've lain all night a-dreaming of it; anything worth doing is devilish hard to do!
waiting feels ifs
If you have work to do, don't wait to feel like it; set to work and you will feel like it.
children believe
To believe in a child is to believe in the Future.
crafts easy premium
That accurst autobiographic form which puts a premium on the loose, the improvised, the cheap, and the easy.
bored feminism shut-up
I am blackly bored when they are at large and at work; but somehow I am still more blackly bored when they are shut up in Holloway and we are deprived of them.
writing thinking evil
Make him [the reader] think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications.
writing character novel
What is either a picture or a novel that is not character?
practice generosity novel
We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generosity.
tongue natural englishmen
An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.
summer drawing shadow
It is indeed immensely picturesque. I can fancy sitting all a summer's day watching its shadows shorten and lengthen again, and drawing a delicious contrast between the world's duration and the feeble span of individual experience. There is something in Stonehenge almost reassuring; and if you are disposed to feel that life is rather a superficial matter, and that we soon get to the bottom of things, the immemorial gray pillars may serve to remind you of the enormous background of time.
kissing white sensual
His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again, and stayed.
artist ideas criticism
We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donn´e: our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it.
land america would-be
If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land.