“Liberate yourself from my vice-like grip!”

“oh, this happiness is strong stuff. It's marvelously liberating.”

“...publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write.”

“There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.”

“In the first place, you’re way off when you start railing at things and people instead of at yourself. ”

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

“She's quite skinny, like me, but nice skinny. Roller-skate skinny. I watched her once from the window when she was crossing over Fifth Avenue to go to the park, and that's what she is, roller-skate skinny. You'd like her.”