Half a man's life is devoted to what he calls improvements, yet the original had some quality which is lost in the process.

If sometimes there seems to be a sort of sameness of sound in The New Yorker, it probably can be traced to the magazine's copydesk, which is a marvelous fortress of grammatical exactitude and stylish convention.

Writing is hard work and bad for the health.

I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.

No matter what changes take place in the world, or in me, nothing ever seems to disturb the face of spring.

There is nothing harder to estimate than a writer's time, nothing harder to keep track of. There are moments—moments of sustained creation—when his time is fairly valuable; and there are hours and hours when a writer's time isn't worth the paper he is not writing anything on.

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