Why should a blacksmith put his hands in the fire if he has tongs?

It's true, you can never eat a pet you name. And anyway, it would be like a ventriloquist eating his dummy.

There is no loneliness like that of a failed marriage.

September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt, evoking orange-flowers, swallows, and regret.

Will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?" asked Mrs. Dodypol. "It depends," says I, "how much you used the dictionary before you read it.

I hate injustice, I despise inequity, I condemn hypocrisy, I abhor the lack of reason.

Where there is no style, there is in effect no point of view. There is, essentially, no anger, no conviction, no self. Style is opinion, hung washing, the caliber of a bullet, teething beads.

Yellow is vagueness and luminousness, both.

Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery, but all snobbery is about the problem of belonging.

One's style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.

Nothing is quite as bad as being without privacy and lonely at the same time.

Make prayer a top priority rather than a last resort.

No one can command over the images of your mind but an Author can and if you won't believe on me then read my book.

M dad was a boxer, so he had this fierce, physical presence.

More men fail though lack of purpose than lack of talent.

I believe in God and in nature and in the triumph of good over evil.

A date is an experience you have with another person that makes you appreciate being alone

I don't take part in it the way I used to-the bimbos, the free beers, free drugs, all that. That's still there if you want it, but I don't really seek that out any more.

The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep - he hath awakened from the dream of life - 'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife.

People who refuse to open their minds to new strategies seldom become rich.