“No complete son of a bitch ever wrote a good sentence.”

“They were learning that New York had another life, too subterranean, like almost everything that was human in the city a life of writers meeting in restaurants at lunchtime or in coffee houses af...”

“There would seem to be four stages in the composition of a story. First comes the germ of the story, then a period of more or less conscious meditation, then the first draft, and finally the revisi...”

“The late 1920s were an age of islands, real and metaphorical. They were an age when Americans by thousands and tens of thousands were scheming to take the next boat for the South Seas or the West I...”

“They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much.”

“It is the fear of being as dependent as a young child while not being loved as a child is loved but merely being kept alive against one's will.”

“nights and days came and passedand summer and winterand the sun and the windand the rain.and it was good to be a little islanda part of the worldand a world of its ownall surrounded by the bright b...”

“When you drop a glass or a plate to the ground it makes a loud crashing sound. When a window shatters a table leg breaks or when a picture falls off the wall it makes a noise. But as for your heart...”

“A good friend of mine once said, "I have never met a bigot who was a reader as a child.”

“If the entire world sought to make itself worthy of happiness rather than make itself happy, then the entire world would be happy.”

“The will of God is sweet tonight, altogether good and acceptable and perfect. The considerate love of the Lord Jesus for us seems such a kind thing now. I know it has always been so, but somehow I ...”

“I wish everyone had someone who never popped their balloons.”

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

“All Earthquakes and Disasters are warnings theres too much corruption in the world ”

“Its only when youre at the bottom of the ladder that you ascend.”