I've always taken my hangovers as consequence, not as a punishment.

There are no ugly questions except those clothed in condescension.

Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.

Socialism never took root in America.

I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.

The curious hocus-pocus of criticism I can't take seriously. It consists in squirreling up some odd phrases and then waiting for a book to come running by.

And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.