To the sun Rome owes its underlying glow, and its air called golden - to me, more the yellow of white wine; like wine it raises agreeability to poetry.

Disappointment tears the bearable film off life.

Ireland is a great country to die or be married in.

Though not all reading children grow up to be writers, I take it that most creative writers must in their day have been reading children.

Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.

The most striking fault in work by young or beginning novelists, submitted for criticism, is irrelevance--due either to infatuation or indecision. To direct such an author's attention to the imperative of relevance is certainly the most useful--and possibly the only--help that can be given.

I think the main thing, don't you, is to keep the show on the road.