There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made. Almost no new classics resemble other previous classics. At first people see only the awkwardness. Then they are not so perceptible. When they show so very awkwardly people think these awkwardnesses are the style and many copy them. This is regrettable.

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

I was always a lonely person when I was with everyone.