But I give you my word, in the entire book there is nothing that cannot be said aloud in mixed company. And there is, also, nothing that makes you a bit the wiser. I wonder--oh, what will you think of me--if those two statements do not verge upon the synonymous.

Genius can write on the back of old envelopes but mere talent requires the finest stationery available.

They say of me, and so they should, It's doubtful if I come to good.

tomorrow's gone-we'll have tonight!

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.

It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence - no first draft. I can't write five words but that I change seven.

Why, after all, should readers never be harrowed? Surely there is enough happiness in life without having to go to books for it.