The United States government, in figuring our gross national product, defines 'durable goods' as anything that will last three years.

A catless writer is almost inconceivable.

Success in war was the only success that counted; failure was a disgrace to be wiped out only by starting another war and winning it.

The trouble with American History is that you don't remember it, and why should you? Nobody does.

Gloom we have always with us, a rank and sturdy weed, but joy requires tending.

New York was where we wanted to live when we were finally grown up, and drink martinis and stay out past bedtime.

In civilized places idleness, once the prerequisite for abstract thought, poetry, religion, philosophy, and falling in love, has become a character flaw. In America we've managed to stamp it out almost completely, and few people under forty can remember a single moment of it, even in earliest childhood. The phrase 'spare time' has vanished from the land.