It's not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, "Read," but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or, "Don't read, don't think, just write," and the result could be a mountain of drivel. If you're going to be a writer you'll probably take a lot of wrong turns and then one day just end up writing something you have to write, then getting it better and better just because you want it to be better, and even when you get old and think, "There must be something else people do," you won't be able to quit.

There were people whom you positively ached to please. If you failed with such people they would put you into a category in their minds where they could kee you and have contempt for you forever.

Now i no longer believe that people's secrets are defined and communicable, or their feelings full-blown and easy to recognize.

Country manners. Even if somebody phones up to tell you your house is burning down, they ask first how you are.

Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?

People have thoughts they’d sooner not have. It happens in life.

That's something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings.