I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint; every line in the dirt like a secret message.

About halfway through I broke down crying, which I hadn't expected. I was a little ashamed, but only a little;it was her, you see, and she never taxed me with the times that I slipped from the way I thought a man should be...the way I thought I should be, at any rate. A man with a good wife is the luckiest of God's creatures, and one without must be among the most miserable, I think, the only true blessing of their lives that they don't know how poorly off they are.

A man with a good wife is the luckiest of God's creatures.

Only library books speak with such wordless eloquence of the power good stories hold over us.

The only religions I don't like are the ones that insist their God is bigger than your God.

I think it is harder to write a story that appeals to the intellect. But, when you tie onto one, you can do it quite deeply. It really depends on the type of idea you have to begin with.

Most people are optimists, although they may claim they are not. People who call themselves realists are often the biggest optimists of all.