In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.

Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?

In descriptions of nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture.

It is easier to ask of the poor than of the rich.

I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.

Do you remember you shot a seagull? A man came by chance, saw it and destroyed it, just to pass the time.

I promise to be a splendid husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, won't in my sky every day...