The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.

Simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far.

I don't want my girl to be so skinny she can knife me with her knee.

The signs of excessive indulgence in this destructive pastime are easily detectable. They are these: A disposition to eat, to drink, to smoke, to meet together convivially, to laugh, to joke, and tell indelicate stories— and mainly, a yearning to paint pictures.

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right

Denial is much more then an Egyptian River.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.