One may have staunch friends in one's own family, but one seldom has admirers.

One summer evening in the year 1848, three Cardinals and a missionary were dining together in the gardens of a villa in the Sabine hills, overlooking Rome.

Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet.

Personal hatred and family affection are not incompatible; they often flourish and grow strong together.

Of course Nebraska is a storehouse of literary material. Everywhere is a storehouse of literary material. If a true artist were born in a pigpen and raised in a sty, he would still find plenty of inspiration for his work. The only need is the eye to see.

Success is less interesting than struggle. There is great pleasure in the effort.

The sun was like a great visiting presence that stimulated and took its due from all animal energy. When it flung wide its cloak and stepped down over the edge of the fields at evening, it left behind it a spent and exhausted world.