Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.

Technique in the minds of many is something rigid, something like a formula that you impose on the material; but in the best stories it is something organic, something that grows out of the material, and this being the case, it is different for every story of any account that has ever been written.

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.

It is a good deal easier for most people to state an abstract idea than to describe and thus re-create some object they actually see.

I was a very ancient twelve; my views at that age would have done credit to a Civil War veteran. I am much younger now than I was at twelve or anyway, less burdened. The weight of the centuries lies on children, I'm sure of it.

To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.

It is the business of the artist to uncover the strangeness of truth