[My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet.

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.

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

very young people are true but not resounding instruments.

Revenge was a very wild kind of justice.

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.

in my experience one thing you don't learn from is anything anyone set up to be a lesson; what you are to know you pick up as you go along.