I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the center of the world.

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.

You must not pursue a success, but fly from it.

Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.