I believe... that security declines as security machinery expands.

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.

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.

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.

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

There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed.

Home was quite a place when people stayed there.