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

Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.

one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty−one that everything afterward savors of anti−climax.

Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.

She’s got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It’s full of-“ I hesitated. “Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly. That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money-that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.

Tireless passion, fierce jealousy, longing to possess and crush-these alone were left of all his love for Rosalind; these remained to him as payment for the loss of his youth-bitter calomel under the thin sugar of love's exaltation.

This is what I think now: that the natural state of the sentient adult is a qualified unhappiness.