To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence, but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.

This was an evil beyond thinking. The killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat. For a boat does not have sons, and a boat cannot protect itself, and a wounded boat does not heal.

It requires self-esteem to receive-not self-love but just a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself.

The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

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

Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches, nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.