Extreme cold when it first arrives seems to generate cheerfulness and sociability. For a few hours all life's dubious problems are dropped in favor of the clear and congenial task of keeping alive.

An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.

In a sense the world dies every time a writer dies, because, if he is any good, he has been a wet nurse to humanity during his entire existence and has held earth close around him, like the little obstetrical toad that goes about with a cluster of eggs attached to his legs.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.

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.

Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.