The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.

If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.

I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.