“I suspect the influence of unsupervised reading”

“Please forgive my appearance. I am lately come from setting a house on fire.”

“Talking about ideas for a novel is a bit like showing pictures of the ultrasound if you're pregnant. Until they're out in the world, they can only be wonderful to you.”

“with the book on my knee , i was happy ,i feared nothing except interruption.”

“So much has religion done for me; turning the original materials to the best account; pruning and training nature. But she could not eradicate nature: nor will it be eradicated 'till this mortal shall put on immortality.”

“In the next world I could not be worse than I am in this.”

“I know only that it is time for me to be something when I am nothing.”