"

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

"

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

"

I could never be a Communist. I could never be regimented. I could never be told what to write.

"

Writers aren't exactly people they're a whole lot of people trying to be one person.

"

My whole theory of writing I can sum up in one sentence. An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and th...more

"

The history of my life is the history of the struggle between an overwhelming urge to write and a combination of circumstances bent on keeping me from...more

"

The clean book bill will be one of the most immoral measures ever adopted. It will throw American art back into the junk heap.

"

Work like hell! I had 122 rejection slips before I sold a story.

"

Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives - experiences so great and...more

"

Whether it's something that happened twenty years ago or only yesterday I must start out with an emotion, one that's close to me and that I can unders...more

"

I want to be able to do anything with words: handle slashing, flaming descriptions like Wells, and use the paradox with the clarity of Samuel Butler, ...more

"

Go on, she urged. Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.

"

Human sympathy has its limits.

"

So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.

"

What are you going to do? "Can't say - run for president, write -" "Greenwich Village?" "Good heavens, no - I said write - not drink.