Through lack of education, we're not teaching kids to read and write. So there is the danger that you raise up a generation of morons.

That's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and WORTH the doing.

We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of on good rain and black loam.

The ability to fantasize is the ability to survive, and the ability to fantasize is the ability to grow

Do three things each night before you go to bed: read a poem, read a short story, read an essay.

If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don't know how to read, you don't know how to decide. That's the great thing about our country - we're a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.

People who take books on sex to bed become frigid. You get self-conscious. You can't think a story. You can't think, "I shall do a story to improve mankind." Well, it's nonsense. All the great stories, all the really worthwhile plays, are emotional experiences. If you have to ask yourself whether or not you love a girl or you love a boy, forget it. You don't. A story is the same way. You either feel a story and need to write it, or you better not write it.