A creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies.

Freedom so often means that one isn't needed anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing.

One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away.

We all like people who do things, even if we only see their faces on cigar-box lids.

Setting ... is accident. Either a building is part of a place, or it is not. Once that kinship is there, time will only make it stronger.

It does not matter much whom we live with in this world, but it matters a great deal whom we dream of.

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.