I had to admit that in his old-fashioned way O'Hara was still romantic about sex; like Scott Fitzgerald, he thought of it as an upper-class prerogative.

The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.

To have a sense of history one must consider oneself a piece of history.

Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling. As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway.

We never know how much has been missing from our lives until a true writer comes along.

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time, in others' minds.

If we practiced medicine like we practice education, wed look for the liver on the right side and left side in alternate years.