Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds, they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.

The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.

Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives - experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time anyone else has been so caught up and so pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before. Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories - each time in a new disguise - maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen.

I hope I haven't given you the impression that I consider kissing intrinsically irrational.

The ability to hold two competing thoughts in one's mind and still be able to function is the mark of a superior mind

The best of America drifts to Paris. The American in Paris is the best American.

She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven.