Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.

In a rough way the short story writer is to the novelist as a cabinetmaker is to a house carpenter.

...all them things I don't know could get you killed if I come to know them

All the travelin I ever done is going around the coffeepot looking for the handle.

Everybody that went away suffered a broken heart. "I'm coming back some day," they all wrote. But never did. The old life was too small to fit anymore.

You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.