The "germ," wherever gathered, has ever been for me, "the germ of a story," and most of the stories strained to shape under my hand have sprung from a single small seed, a seed as remote and windblown as a casual hint.

I had an excellent repast - the best repast possible - which consisted simply of boiled eggs and bread and butter. It was the quality of these simple ingredients that made the occasion memorable. The eggs were so good that I am ashamed to say how many of them I consumed ....It might seem that an egg which has succeeded in being fresh has done all that can be reasonably expected of it.

Don't pass it by - the immediate, the real, the ours, the yours, the novelist's that it waits for.

Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box.

We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generosity.

He is the same old sausage, fizzing and sputtering in his own grease.

Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup.