there is only one thing we do know and that is that we do not know anything.

It is a pretty trick of authors to make nature ever in sympathy with man, but as a matter of fact she seldom is.

Nowhere can it rain harder and with a more tiresome persistence than in California during the brief season when it rains at all.

The grief of childhood is terrible while it lasts, it is so abandoned and so all-possessing.

genius must ever be imperfect. Life is not long enough nor slow enough for both brain and character to grow side by side to superhuman proportions.

Never trust a woman who will not lie about her age after thirty. She is unwomanly and unhuman and there is no knowing what crimes she will commit.

I want books written out of a brain and heart and soul crowded and vital with Life, spelled with a big L. I want poetry bursting with passion. I don't care a hang for the 'verbal felicities.' They'll do for the fringe, but I want the garment to warm me first.