I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

I'll die propped up in bed trying to do a poem about America.

What is there more of in the world than anything else? Ends.

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.

I had been keeping an off eye on the advertising field, thinking I might become an idea man and a copywriter.

By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul.

Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.