Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry, but she always has time. And that's one definition of a lady.

She is pure Alice in Wonderland, and her appearance and demeanor are a nicely judged mix of the Red Queen and a Flamingo.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

The wind is us-- it gathers and remembers all our voices, then sends them talking and telling through the leaves and the fields.

Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.

I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.

When you've got nowhere to turn, turn on the gas.

Well, I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.

A man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat. He stores up a lot of poison.

One of the rules of caution is not to be too cautious.

If it wasn't for prison, I was in a bad way.

Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.

Class struggle: external peace, international solidarity, peace among peoples. This is the sacred slogan of international socialist democracy that liberates nations.

Idleness, simon-pure, from which all manner of good springs like seed from a fallow soil, is sure to be misnamed and misconstrued.

I learned the enormous power of writing for yourself, especially now that people seem to be receptive to the fact that women can write.

Americans in particular are oddly innocent in their faith that science holds explanations for everything.

Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him.

Plan ahead: It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

Never let a crisis go to waste