Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. In protest, I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago, and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize.

She was snatched back from a dream of far countries, and found herself on Main Street.

Why is it that traveling Americans are always so dreadful?

The trouble with this country is that there are too many people going about saying, "The trouble with this country is...."

Writers have a rare power not given to anyone else: we can bore people long after we are dead.

The game (baseball)was a custom of his clan, and it gave outlet for the homicidal and sides-taking instincts which Babbitt called "patriotism" and "love of sport."

You have more people that love you than you know.