The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.

Dogs are a habit, I think.

Habit is not mere subjugation, it is a tender tie; when one remembers habit it seems to have been happiness.

Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.

one should discuss one's difficulties only when they are over.

We have really no absent friends.

All my life I have said, "Whatever happens there will always be tables and chairs"--and what a mistake.