We can't all be friends and relatives as the world is; most of us have to be strangers.

The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime

You write by sitting down and writing. There's no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he's disciplined, doesn't matter.

Tomorrow the world is not the same as today, though God listens with the same ear.

You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.

A writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.

I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought.