Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.

Dogs are obsessed with being happy.

I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it, because many interesting challenges are set up, and because I have the hope it may do some good.

Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.

He had as much fun in the water as any person I have known. You didn't have to throw a stick in the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you did throw one in. He would even have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in.