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

Habitually creative people are prepared to be lucky.

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.

The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who enjoy bird walks enjoys theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new 'attempt,' differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.

Once in everyone's life there is apt to be a period when he is fully awake, instead of half-asleep.

Stuart rose from the ditch, climbed into his car, and started up the road that led toward the north...As he peeked ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction.

Writing is both mask and unveiling.