Don't put anything into a story that does not reveal character or advance the action.

I don't know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder. We call ourselves "Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment."

You can't just eat good food. You've got to talk about it too. And you've got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.

Human beings are about 1,000 times dumber and meaner than they think they are.

Your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.

I have no culture, no humane harmony in my brains. I can't live without a culture anymore.

Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God.