← Soames was an artist, in so far as he was anything, poor fellow! 🔊
← I said mildly that I wasn't, either, and murmured that an artist who gave truly new and great things to the world had always to wait long for recognition. 🔊
← Had I known that he really and firmly believed in the greatness of what he as an artist had achieved, I might not have shunned him. 🔊
← Any artist who—who gives—" 🔊
← What I wanted to say was, "Any artist who gives truly new and great things to the world has always to wait long for recognition"; but the flattery would not out: 🔊
← You imagine that a great artist's faith in himself and in the verdict of posterity is enough to keep him happy. 🔊
← "You aren't an artist," he rasped. 🔊
← "And you're so hopelessly not an artist that, so far from being able to imagine a thing and make it seem true, you're going to make even a true thing seem as if you'd made it up. 🔊