there is something shameful about the death of a play. It does not die with pity, but contempt. A book may fail, but who is there to know it? It dies and is buried, and is decently interred on the bookseller's shelf; but the play dies to laughter, to scorn and disdain.

[On fishing:] Greatest rest in the world for the brain.

Every writer knows the terror of an unexpected success. How to carry on? How to repeat it?

I have never learned to say 'gas' for gasoline. It seems to me as absurd as if I were to say 'but' for butter.

the calm of a place like Bellwood is the peace of death without the hope of resurrection.

The fetish of the great university, of expensive colleges for young women, is too often simply a fetish. It is not based on a genuine desire for learning. Education today need not be sought at any great distance. It is largely compounded of two things, of a certain snobbishness on the part of parents, and of escape from home on the part of youth. And to those who must earn quickly it is often sheer waste of time. Very few colleges prepare their students for any special work.

[On the Irish:] Strange race ... Don't know what they want, but want it like the devil.