It sometimes takes days, even weeks, before a dog's nerves tire. In the case of terriers it can run into months.

There is a decivilizing bug somewhere at work; unconsciously persons of stern worth, by not resenting and resisting the small indignities of the times, are preparing themselves for the eventual acceptance of what they themselves know they don't want.

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.

A man must have something to cling to. Without that he is as a pea vine sprawling in search of a trellis.... I was all asprawl, clinging to Beauty, which is a very restless trellis.

Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.

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

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.