Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.

I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that does not have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular.

The circus comes as close to being the world in microcosm as anything I know; in a way, it puts all the rest of show business in the shade.

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.

When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.

New York is part of the natural world. I love the city, I love the country, and for the same reasons. The city is part of the country. When I had an apartment on East Forty-Eighth Street, my backyard during the migratory season yielded more birds than I ever saw in Maine.