English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.

His words span rivers and mountains, but his thoughts are still only six inches long.

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people-- people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

There is simply a better chance of doing well if the writer holds a steady course, enters the stream of English quietly, and does not thrash about.

Democracy is itself, a religious faith. For some it comes close to being the only formal religion they have.

I have no warm up exercises, other than to take an occasional drink.