Everywhere we go and move on and change, something's lost--something's left behind. You can't ever quite repeat anything, and I've been so yours, here--

When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have been worn shoddy by his inferiors. It should be a rule that bad writers must start with plain heroines and ordinary mornings, and, if they are able, work up to something better.

all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force — of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality — that was close at hand

Every author ought to write every book as if he were going to be beheaded the day he finished it.

I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.

His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours.

No matter how low you go, there's always an unexplored basement.