Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves -- that's the truth. We have two or three great moving experiences in our lives -- experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time that anyone else has been so caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before.

You don't write because you want to say something; you write because you've got something to say.

Writing is simple. First you have to make sure you have plenty of paper... sharp pencils... typewriter ribbon. Then put your belly up to your desk... roll a sheet of paper into the typewriter... and stare at it until beads of blood appear on your forehead.

Writers aren't people exactly. Or, if they're any good, they're a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person. It's like actors, who try so pathetically not to look in mirrors. Who lean back ward trying -- only to see their faces in the reflecting chandeliers.

Often I think writing is a sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meager.

My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterwards.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

Temperance and labor are the two best virtues. Labor whets the appetite, temperance curbs it.