Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.

He rested sitting on the un-stepped mast and sail and tried not to think but only to endure.

Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don't be thinking what you're going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe.

How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

You see I'm trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across, not just to depict life, or criticize it, but to actually make it alive.

It is very bad for (an artist) to talk about how he (creates). It is not the (artist's) province to explain or to run guided tours through the more difficult country of his work. It's none of their business that you had to learn. Let them think you were born that way.

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