Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life - and one is as good as another.

Everyone my age had written a novel and I was still having difficulty writing a paragraph.

Out of all the things you could not have there were some things that you could have and one of those was to know when you were happy and to enjoy all of it while it was there and it was good.

Of all men the drunkard is the foulest. The thief when he is not stealing is like another. The extortioner does not practice in the home. The murderer when he is at home can wash his hands. But the drunkard stinks and vomits in this own bed and dissolves his organs in alcohol.

In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.

It is silly not to hope, besides I believe it is a sin." The Old Man and the Sea