One cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own.

Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud. No other city is so spitefully incoherent.

If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you're not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.

Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.

The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.

You took the best, so why not take the rest?

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.