All that is really necessary for survival of the fittest, it seems, is an interest in life, good, bad or peculiar.

I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

No metaphor reinvents the job of the nurture of children except to muddy or mock.

I'm really sorry for people growing up right now, because they have some cockeyed idea that they can get by with their eyes closed; the cane they're tapping is money, and that won't take them in the right direction.

I didn't intend to become a short-story writer. I became one because I finished a couple of short stories and realized that's what I wanted to do and could do with children and with all the other things in my life.

I was a fantastic student until ten, and then my mind began to wander.

I liked the education. I liked people learning things all around me and I liked going to people's classes.