Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.

Love must be learned again and again... Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked.

Could she fall so low? No, there were limits, and she believed she still knew where some of them were.

Lovemaking surely must be, for human beings at our present state of development, one of the more private enterprises. Who would want a witness to that entire self-abandonment and helplessness?

And yet, we know how fatal the pursuit of liveliness may be: it may result in ... tiresome acrobatics. ... Flashy effects distract the mind. They destroy their persuasiveness; you would not believe a man was very intent on ploughing a furrow if he carried a hoop with him and jumped through it at every other step. ... When virtuosity gets the upper hand of your theme, or is better than your idea, it is time to quit.

I think I've only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing. The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water.

God does not know whether a skin is black or white, He sees only souls.