So remember these two things: you are talented and you are original. Be sure of that. I say this because self-trust is one of the very most important things in writing.

Everyone knows how people who laugh easily create us by their laughter,--making us think of funnier and funnier things.

If we don't act at all (express our imaginings either in work or a changing personality, so that we can learn and think again something better) we certainly rot.

You can write anything you want to,--a six-act blank verse, symbolic tragedy or a vulgar short, short story. Just so that you write it with honesty and gusto, and do not try to make somebody believe that you are smarter than you are. What's the use? You can never be smarter than you are.

Inspiration does not come like a blot, nor is it kinetic energy striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly all the time.

the death of any loved parent is an incalculable lasting blow. Because no one ever loves you again like that.

We should all know this: that listening, not talking, is the gifted and great role, and the imaginative role.