When you come right down to it, opinions are the most superficial things about anyone

Death is just infinity closing in.

Reality is not always probable, or likely. But if you're writing a story, you have to make it as plausible as you can, because if not, the reader's imagination will reject it.

To arrange a library is to practice in a quiet and modest way the art of criticism.

If I were asked to name the chief event in my life, I should say my father's library.

As to my writing short pieces, there are two reasons I can give you. The first is my invincible laziness. The second is that I've always been fond of short stories, and it always took me some trouble to get through a novel.

Then I reflect that all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me.