The more original a short-story writer, the odder looking the assortment of things he or she puts together for a story.

The secret of literature, which conventional people don't guess, is that writers are forever looking for the surprising revelation - not for reinforcement of collective wisdom.

There isn't a thought or feeling that doesn't alter or deepen when written. We are a writing animal. That is why all of us feel we have a book inside us. It isn't an illusion. We have got a book inside us.

The principle of literature is devotion to the particulars of life.

It is very difficult to teach navigation theory to someone who clings to the shore.

your soul needs to be lonely so that its strangest elements can moil about, curl and growl and jump, fail and get triumphant, all inside you. Sociable people have the most trouble hearing their unconscious. They have trouble getting rid of clichés because clichés are sociable.

Emily was feeling the elation of conscientious hosts when they can temporarily escape a ubiquitous houseguest.