We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.

Only through immitation do we develop toward originality.

Again it might have been the American tendency in travel. One goes, not so much to see but to tell afterward.

Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

A little hope, even hopeless hope, never hurt anybody.

These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.