“Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul.”

“More faults are created than cured by professional teachers.”

“Dignity is an affectation, cute but eccentric, like learning French or collecting scarves.”

“The mimicry of passion is the most intolerable of all poses.”

“I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is ...”

“...the values ascribed to the Indian will depend on what the white writer feels about Nature, and America has always had mixed feelings about that. At one end of the spectrum is Thoreau, wishing to...”

“Literature is news which stays news.”

“If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, When youre ready.”