You could omit anything if you knew that the omitted part would strengthen the short story and make people feel something more than they understood

There can be no great literature in America until her writers have learned to trust her implicitly and love her devoutly.

And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all.

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea. It had lasted through three hurricanes and it was built solid as a ship.

I've seen a lot of patriots and they all died just like anybody else if it hurt bad enough and once they were dead their patriotism was only good for legends; it was bad for their prose and made them write bad poetry. If you are going to be a great patriot i.e. loyal to any existing order of government (not one who wishes to destroy the existing for something better) you want to be killed early if your life and works won't stink.

No one you love is ever truly lost.