The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.

All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.

A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can't get it by breeding for it, and you can't buy it with money. It just happens along.

It is deeply satisfying to win a prize in front of a lot of people.

Thurber did not write the way a surgeon operates, he wrote the way a child skips rope, the way a mouse waltzes.

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.

A writer is like a bean plant - he has his little day, and then gets stringy.