Writing, in any sense that matters, cannot be taught. It can only be learned by each separate one of us in his own way, by the use of his own powers of imagination and perception, the ability to learn the lessons he has set for himself.

You can't write about people out of textbooks, and you can't use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.

Trust your happiness and the richness of your life at this moment. It is as true and as much yours as anything else that ever happened to you.

I will never again attempt to tell any young person what to do - the really gifted don't need advice and the others can't take it.

You shouldn't side-step suffering if you have to go through it to get where you're going.

I look upon literature as an art, and I believe that if you misuse it or abuse it, it will leave you. It is not a thing that you can nail down and use as you want. You have to let it use you, too.

First impressions are often signals from the deep that we should credit oftener than we do.