If my Valentine you won't be, I'll hang myself on your Christmas tree.

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. . . .When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have e made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.

The first and most important thing of all, at least for writers today, is to strip language clean, to lay it bare down to the bone.

Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

My heart's broken,' he thought. 'If I feel this way my heart must be broken.

Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.

Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities. He would be glad to see me, and would want me at his table. It would be a sincere liking because it would have a sound basis. I was back in France.