Real seriousness in regard to writing being one of the two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

I started out very quiet and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat Mr. de Maupassant. I've fought two draws with Mr. Stendhal, and I think I had an edge in the last one. But nobody's going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I'm crazy or I keep getting better.

All the contact I have had with politics has left me feeling as though I had been drinking out of spitoons.

we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.

I have noticed that doctors who fail in the practice of medicine have a tendency to seek one another's company and aid in consultation.

When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I had ever loved anyone but her.