He was there or was not there: not there if I didn't see him.
("The Turn of the Screw")
More Quotes from Henry James:
I think I don't regret a single 'excess' of my responsive youth - I only regret, in my chilled age, certain occasions and possibilities I didn't embrace.Henry James
The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
Henry James
Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them, and it is the infatuation, the devotion, the superstition of others that keeps them going. These others in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred are women.
Henry James
I ought to tell you I'm probably your cousin.
Henry James
She was a woman who, between courses, could be graceful with her elbows on the table.
Henry James
Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.
Henry James
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Violence commands both literature and life, and violence is always crude and distorted.Ellen Glasgow
If history is going to repeat itself I should think we can expect the same thing again.
Terry Venables
People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be - whether they will admit that or not.
Earl Nightingale