I might repeat to myself . . . a list of quotations from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.

Salary is no object: I want only enough to keep body and soul apart.

On lady novelists: As artists they're rot, but as providers they're oil wells; they gush. Norris said she never wrote a story unless it was fun to do. I understand Ferber whistles at her typewriter.

The nowadays ruling that no word is unprintable has, I think, done nothing whatever for beautiful letters. The boys have gone hog-wild with liberty, yet the short flat terms used over and over, both in dialogue and narrative, add neither vigor nor clarity; the effect is not of shock but of something far more dangerous — tedium.

If I had any decency, I'd be dead. Most of my friends are.

Never throw mud: you can miss the target, but your hands will remain dirty.

Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.