In the nineteenth century the more grandiose word inspiration began to replace the word idea in the arts.

If the nineteenth century was the age of the editorial chair, ours is the century of the psychiatrist's couch.

If I haven't made myself clear, this worrisome chain of events describes the game of the nineteenth century.

'In the nineteenth century, we beat the British more than once,' Afghans often told me. 'In the twentieth century, we beat the Russians. In the twenty-first, if we have to, we'll beat the Americans!'

Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.

In retrospect, the pace of change in the arts and industry in the nineteenth century seems pretty glacial. Painting, music, the novel, architecture were all evolving, but at a pretty observable pace.