You have been my friends. That in itself is a tremendous thing.

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.

In order to read one must sit down, usually indoors. I am restless and would rather sail a boat than crack a book. I've never had a very lively literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not really a literary fellow at all. Except that I write for a living.

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

I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen.

I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.

I have always felt that the first duty of a writer was to ascend - to make flights, carrying others along if you can manage it. To do this takes courage, even a certain conceit.