I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

[T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).

Short stories amount for the most part to parlour tricks, party favours with built-in snappers, gadgets for including recognition and reversals

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what you do.

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.