Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meagre.

Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.

But I suppose you must touch life in order to spring from it.

It is difficult for young people to live things down. We will tolerate vice, grand larceny and the quieter forms of murder in our contemporaries... but our children's friends must show a blank service record.

It was as if for the remainder of his life he was condemned to carry with him the egos of certain people, early met and early loved, and to be only as complete as they were complete themselves. There was some element of loneliness involved--so easy to be loved--so hard to love.

Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one.

She was a mischief, and that was a satisfaction; no longer was she a huntress of corralled game