Some day some one will write a book about that frantic search of the creative worker for silence and freedom, not only from interruption but from the fear of interruption.

The one pleasure that never palls is the pleasure of not going to church.

War is a thing of fearful and curious anomalies ... It has shown that government by men only is not an appeal to reason, but an appeal to arms; that on women, without a voice to protest, must fall the burden. It is easier to die than to send a son to death.

There is a point at which curiosity becomes unbearable, when it becomes an obsession, like hunger.

I have a great deal of mind. It takes a long time to change it.

[When working on a book] I have an almost complete detachment from the world I live in, a sort of armor against distraction. I talk to people, move about, appear on the surface much as usual. But later on I have only a confused memory of what has happened during that period.

It's the safety valve of middle life, and the solace of age.