The story must spring from an impression or perception pressing enough to have made the writer write. It should magnetize the imagination and give pleasure.

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

Sacrificers ... are not the ones to pity. The ones to pity are those that they sacrifice. Oh, the sacrificers, they get it both ways. A person knows themselves that they're able to do without.

Darling, I don't want you; I've got no place for you; I only want what you give. I don't want the whole of anyone.... What you want is the whole of me-isn't it, isn't it?-and the whole of me isn't there for anybody. In that full sense you want me I don't exist.

It is in this unearthly first hour of spring twilight that earth's almost agonized livingness is most felt. This hour is so dreadful to some people that they hurry indoors and turn on the lights.

Forgiveness should be an act, but this is a state with him.

rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.