I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.

O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.

East is East, and West is San Francisco

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.

Greenwich Village... the village of low rents and high arts.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.