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.

Those whom we first love we seldom marry

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.

What else can you expect from a town thats shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other?

There is no well defined boundary line between honesty and dishonesty. The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and he who attempts to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in the one domain and sometimes in the other.

It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.