People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.

Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.

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

Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays

It is a miracle that New York works at all. The whole thing is implausible.

Deathlessness should be arrived at in a... haphazard fashion. Loving fame as much as any man, we shall carve our initials in the shell of a tortoise and turn him loose in a peat bog.

It seemed to me that I should have a desk, even though I had no real need for a desk. I was afraid that if I had no desk in my room my life would seem too haphazard.