The writer has three sources: imagination, observation, and experience

The necessity of the idea creates its own style. The material itself dictates how it should be written.

...how false the most profound book turns out to be when applied to life.

I love Virginians because Virginians are all snobs and I like snobs. A snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little time left to meddle with you.

So long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice.

A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.

I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period.