I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble.

He (The Agent) just takes ten per cent of your life.

The streets were dark with something more then night.

Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form inself on the edge of consciousness.

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again.

The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.