A page of good prose remains invincible.

Admite the world. Relish the love of a gentle woman. Trust in the lord.

To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim.

For lovers, touch is metamorphosis. All the parts of their bodies seem to change, and they seem to become something different and better.

Who reads short stories? one is asked, and I like to think that they are read by men and women in the dentist's office, waiting to be called to the chair; they are read on transcontinental plane trips instead of watching banal and vulgar films spin out the time between our coasts; they are read by discerning and well-informed men and women who seem to feel that narrative fiction can contribute to our understanding of one another and the sometimes bewildering world around us.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil - not the strength to choose between the two.

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.