On the moon we wore feathers in our hair, and rubies on our hands. On the moon we had gold spoons.

No, the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense.

I came to believe that being a private detective was the work I was meant to do.

The first book is the book you have to write to get back at your parents; the book you always had in you. Once you get that out of your way, you can start writing books.

Dad and I did not care at all for your story in The New Yorker … [I]t does seem, dear, that this gloomy kind of story is what all you young people think about these days. Why don't you write something to cheer people up?

Life Among the Savages is a disrespectful memoir of my children.

Bridge is a game for the undivided intellect.