It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg adress was so short. The laws of prose writing are immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics. Fr letter to Maxwell Perkins 1945

Mice: But reading all the good writers might discourage you.Y.C.: Then you ought to be discouraged.

I love to write. But it has never gotten any easier to do and you can't expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do.

I still need some more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently.

The more I'm let alone and not worried the better I can function.

Mice: What is the best early training for a writer?Y.C.: An unhappy childhood.

Don't let yourself slip and get any perfect characters... keep them people, people, people, and don't let them get to be symbols.

There is a god in man, and in nature. He, who sits in the dark, is the bringer of light. This beauty, the sign of an open eye.

Influence is having people follow you because of what you represent,

He knew for a fact that it was possible to fall and just keep falling.

If we belong to Christ, Satan has no right to exercise authority over us, but he hopes we're too ignorant regarding Scripture to know it.

Set me anything to do as a task, and it is inconceivable the desire I have to do something else.

You're lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.

Demand more of yourself.

I would like to be Jupiter, and lie down in the firmament and make love to everybody.

People might look great on the outside but they all have something that they're dealing with.