I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here. When I come back to it, I never have to remind it of anything; I begin just where I left off.

Life began for me, when I ceased to admire and began to remember.

What if - what if Life itself were the sweetheart?

Nothing mattered ... but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them.

Art and religion (they are the same thing, in the end, of course) have given man the only happiness he has ever had.

Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere.

Your vivid, exciting companionship in the office must not be your audience, you must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world.