“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.”

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”

“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.... No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.”

“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.”