"

My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courte...more

"

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.

"

Artistic temperament is like a king with vigor and unlimited opportunity. You shake the structure to pieces by playing with it.

"

Art invariably grows out of a period when, in general, the artist admires his own nation and wants to win its approval.

"

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

"

Communism as I see it has no place in the United States, and the American people will not stand for its teachings.

"

Now, Max, I have told you many times that you are my publisher, and permanently, as far as one can fling about the word in this too mutable world....T...more

"

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

"

A writer must find his own grain, way, bent. ...He aspires to create new and original works. His way is alone. If he succumbs to ideologies, he turns ...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

"

This general eclipse of ambition and determination and fortitude, all of the very qualities on which I have prided myself, is ridiculous, and, I must ...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.