Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.

It seemed to me that I should have a desk, even though I had no real need for a desk. I was afraid that if I had no desk in my room my life would seem too haphazard.

Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.

Walden is the only book I own, although there are some others unclaimed on my shelves. Every man, I think, reads one book in his life, and this is mine. It is not the best book I ever encountered, perhaps, but it is for me the handiest, and I keep it about me in much the same way one carries a handkerchief - for relief in moments of defluxion or despair.

I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.

Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.

A schoolchild should be taught grammar - for the same reason that a medical student should study anatomy. Having learned about the exciting mysteries of an English sentence, the child can then go forth and speak and write any damn way he pleases.