Home was quite a place when people stayed there.

The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it, the speed of his acceptance.

A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. ... A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy: true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.

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.

A library is many things, but particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books... Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had.

The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.