Not even a collapsing world looks dark to a man who is about to make his fortune.

I have noticed that most men when they enter a barber shop and must wait their turn, drop into a chair and pick up a magazine. I simply sit down and pick up the thread of my sea wanderings, which began more than fifty years ago and is not quite ended. There is hardly a waiting room in the east that has not served as my cockpit, whether I was waiting to board a train or to see a dentist. And I am usually still trimming sheets when the train starts or drill begins to whine.

Familiarity is the thing-the sense of belonging. It grants exemption from all evil, all shabbiness.

The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up.

The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.

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