We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us.

When a man begins to be hilarious in a sorrowful way you can bet a million that he is dyeing his hair.

Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving!

A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.

When I see a shipwreck, I like to know what caused the disaster...I learned nothing but the glow that wrapped her face when the soup came. That's the story.

Yes, I get dry spells. Sometimes I can't turn out a thing for three months. When one of those spells comes on I quit trying to work and go out and see something of life. You can't write a story that's got any life in it by sitting at a writing table and thinking. You've got to get out into the streets, into the crowds, talk with people, and feel the rush and throb of real life-that's the stimulant for a story writer.

A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.