Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.

Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.

Writing offers fairly large rewards to a few successful people, but the rewards come late, and most writers are failures.

First New York was a sort of provincial capital, bigger and richer than Manchester or Marseilles, but not much different in its essential spirit. Then, after the war, it became one among half a dozen world cities. Today it has the appearance of standing alone, as the center of culture in the part of the world that still tries to be civilized.

They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much.

It is the fear of being as dependent as a young child, while not being loved as a child is loved, but merely being kept alive against one's will.

A man rising in the world is not concerned with history; he is too busy making it. But a citizen with a fixed place in the community wants to acquire a glorious past just as he acquires antique furniture. By that past he is reassured of his present importance; in it he finds strength to face the dangers that lie in front of him.