If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.

Wilbur didn't want food, he wanted love.

The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up.

new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.

When I get sick of what men do, I have only to walk a few steps in another direction to see what spiders do. Or what the weather does. This sustains me very well indeed.

Extreme cold when it first arrives seems to generate cheerfulness and sociability. For a few hours all life's dubious problems are dropped in favor of the clear and congenial task of keeping alive.

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.