Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.

The cocktail filled him with a whirling exhilaration behind which he was aware of devastating desires—to rush places in fast motors, to kiss girls, to sing, to be witty. ... He perceived that he had gifts of profligacy which had been neglected. —chapter 8

It isn't what you earn but how spend it that fixes your class.

The Maker of the universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon.

When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read.

When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and will claim the name of 100-percent Americanism

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.