Critics may say that Wilde is a smaller person than Socrates, less significant in many ways: but even if this were true, it would not alter the artist's position; the great portraits of the world are not of Napoleon or Dante.

The differences between men are not important in comparison with their inherent likeness.

To depict the mortal so that he takes on immortality--that is the task of the artist.
There are special reasons, too, why I should handle this story.

Oscar Wilde was a friend of mine for many years: I could not help prizing him to the very end: he was always to me a charming, soul-animating influence.

He was dreadfully punished by men utterly his inferiors: ruined, outlawed, persecuted till Death itself came as a deliverance.
His sentence impeaches his judges.