The purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it. I am little comfort to myself, although I am the only comfort I have, excepting perhaps streets, clouds, the sun, the faces and voices of kids and the aged, and similar accidents of beauty, innocence, truth and loneliness.

We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

People are people. Don't be afraid of them.

I cannot see the war as historians see it. Those clever fellows study all the facts and they see the war as a large thing, one of the biggest events in the legend of the man, something general, involving multitudes.

Christmas is sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.

I used to throw things out, saying, 'This isn't great.' It didn't occur to me that it didn't have to be great.

The Tax Collector's letters are invariably mimeographed, and all they say is that you still haven't paid him.