Like every other form of art, literature is no more and nothing less than a matter of life and death. The only question worth asking about a story — or a poem, or a piece of sculpture, or a new concert hall — is, Is it dead or alive?

All lives are interesting; no one life is more interesting than another. Its fascination depends on how much is revealed, and in what manner.

She and Marie were Montreal girls, not trained to accompany heroes, or to hold out for dreams, but just to be patient.

... appeals to memory were never perfectly answered.

Writing is like a love affair: the beginning is the best part.

A writer's life stands in relation to his work as a house does to a garden, related but distinct.

There is something I keep wanting to say about reading short stories. I am doing it now, because I many never have another occasion. Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book. Read something else. Come back later. Stories can wait.