The greatest weapon in the world ... is ridicule.

[To her frequently needed plumber:] How would you like to be adopted? I'm sure it would be cheaper.

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

I suppose that we are only young, Chris, so long as we can forget. After that we merely remember!

To men and women who want to do things, there is nothing quite so driving as the force of an imprisoned ego. . . . All genius comes from this class.

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.

[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.