“You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.”

“You're only good if you can do bad and decide not to.”

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him sing opera.”

“Only sometimes you can't feel anything about a subject without hypothesizing its extinction.”

“Just exactly what that good life was--the one I expected--I cannot tell you now exactly, though I wouldn't say it has not come to pass, only that much has come in between.”

“. . . no matter the evidence of your life, or who you believe you are, or what you're willing to take credit for or draw your vital strength and pride from--anything at all can follow anything at all.”

“What I know is, you have chance in life--of surviving it--if you tolerate loss well; manage not to be a cynic through it all; to subordinate, as Ruskin implied, to keep proportion, to connect the unequal things into a whole that preserves the good, even if admittedly good is often not simple to find.”