This is a good place," he said. "There's a lot of liquor," I agreed.

The best ammunition against lies is the truth, there is no ammunition against gossip. It is like a fog and the clear wind blows it away and the sun burns it off.

Fish," the old man said. "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?

All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.

Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it.

Some people show evil as a great racehorse shows breeding. They have the dignity of a hard chancre.

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.