Letterwriting is the natural outlet of the "odds." The busy-bodies, the idle, the perverted, the cranks, the feel-it-my-duties ... Also the plain depraved. They all write letters. It's their safe outlet, you see. They can be as interfering, as long-winded, as obscene, as pompous, as one-idea'd, as they like on paper, and no one can kick them for it. So they write. My God, how they write!

Letterwriting is the natural outlet of the "odds." The busy-bodies, the idle, the perverted, the cranks, the feel-it-my-duties ... Also the plain depraved. They all write letters. It's their safe outlet, you see. They can be as interfering, as long-winded, as obscene, as pompous, as one-idea'd, as they like on paper, and no one can kick them for it. So they write. My God, how they write!

A man may own a ship, but unless he is captain of a crew he goes where the ship goes.

Nothing great ever came out of common sense.

Most people's first books are their best anyways. It's the one they wanted most to write.

One would expect boredom to be a great yawning emotion, but it isn't, of course. It's a small niggling thing.

Horse sense is the instinct that keeps horses from betting on men.