It was pleasant to talk shop again; to use that elliptical, allusive speech that one uses only with another of one's trade.

There were people whose only interest in life was writing letters. To the newspapers, to authors, to strangers, to City Councils, to the police. It did not much matter to whom; the satisfaction of writing seemed to be all.

Riches ... don't consist in having things, but in not having to do something you don't want to do. ... Riches is being able to thumb your nose.

Nothing great ever came out of common sense.

After three days without one, the desire to read a newspaper vanished. And really, one was happier without.

A thousand people drowned in floods in China are news: a solitary child drowned in a pond is tragedy.

Fasting was good for the imagination but bad for logic.