America is the only country in the world where you can suffer culture shock without leaving home.

Never look on the bright side. The glare is blinding.

A cardinal rule of writing is never interrupt yourself to explain something. If you must bring up an obscure topic, drop informative hints about it as you go along so that you don't end up with the entire explanation all in one place. This keeps you from skidding to a stop and sounding teacherish. Otherwise it's better to omit the obscure topic altogether, or as mothers might put it: if you can't say it interestingly, don't say it at all.

because the theater lost a Barrymore every time a Southerner decided not to go on the stage, just about anything that comes out of a Southern mouth is bound to be a ringing line.

In social matters, pointless conventions are not merely the bee sting of etiquette, but the snake bite of moral order.

Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.

Americans worship creativity the way they worship physical beauty - as a way of enjoying elitism without guilt: God did it.