The Swiss are a neat and an industrious people, none of whom is under seventy-five years of age.

[On Dashiell Hammett:] ... he is so hard-boiled you could roll him on the White House lawn.

I hate writing, I love having written.

...as for helping me in the outside world, the Convent taught me only that if you spit on a pencil eraser, it will erase ink.

What writes worse than a Theodore Dreiser? ... Two Theodore Dreisers.

Oh, both my shoes are shiny new, And pristine is my hat My dress is 1922… My life is all like that.

If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills you.