Quotes from Richard Ellmann

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in fact the gestation of a soul.

Historians of literature like to regard a century as a series of ten faces, each grimacing in a different way.

Drift beautifully on the surface, and you will die unbeautifully in the depths.

Wilde had to live his life twice over, first in slow motion, then at top speed. During the first period he was a scapegrace, during the second a scapegoat. For the three and a half years he lived after his release from prison, he saw pass before him, mostly in dumb show, a multitude of people he had known earlier, who evaded him.

Drift beautifully on the surface, and you will die unbeautifully in the depths.