I'll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is no rule 2. The technical points you can get from Bliss Perry. If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.

A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.

Hospitality in the prairie country is not limited. Even if your enemy passes your way, you must feed him before you shoot him.

The most notable thing about Time is that it is so purely relative. A large amount of reminiscence is, by common consent, conceded to the drowning man; and it is not past belief that one may review an entire courtship while removing one's gloves.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

There is a saying that no man has tasted the full flavor of life until he has known poverty, love, and war.

Of habit, the power that keeps the earth from flying to pieces; though there is some silly theory of gravitation.