There’s no right way to tell all stories, only the right way to tell a particular story.

I was giving up--being realistic, as people liked to say, meaning the same thing. Being realistic made me feel bitter.

The human heart is a dark forest.

When your power comes from others, on approval, you are their slave. Never sacrifice yourselves - never! Whoever urges you to self-sacrifice is worse than a common murderer, who at least cuts your throat himself, without persuading YOU to do it.

But a lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless.

Want! You must want something. What do you want?

I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me to be perhaps closer in spirit to poetry than to novels.