I feel, like all modern Americans, no consciousness of sin and simply do not believe in it. All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does, he will not send me to Hell. That is a final fact of my inner consciousness, and for no religion could I deny its truth.

Art is both creation and recreation.

I have a hankering to go back to the Orient and discard my necktie. Neckties strangle clear thinking.

The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his (or her) knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love or sympathy for a human being is awakened.

It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.

And if the reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted

It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.