Books are the best friends you can have; they inform you, and entertain you, and they don't talk back.

Socialism never took root in America.

Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping.

I think I love you, Cal." -Abra I'm not good." -Cal Because you're not good." -Abra

When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.

Look now — in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst sin we know. And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, 'Use it well, use it wisely.' We put no checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training.

A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn't telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome.