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Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man - the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

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I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so t...more

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Tomorrow night I appear for the first time before a Boston audience - 4000 critics.

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To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a singl...more

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I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way....more

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I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever ...more

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One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

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The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction...more

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Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.

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A successful book is not made of what is in it, but what is left out of it.

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Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.

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I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules.

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Perfect grammar--persistent, continuous, sustained--is the fourth dimension, so to speak: many have sought it, but none has found it.

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High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water.

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It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream--a ...more