-
What did I know best that I had not written about and Lost? What did I know about truly and care for the most?
-
I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together
-
I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about.
-
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
-
I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
-
I do not think I had ever seen a nastier-looking man. Under the black hat, when I had first seen them, the eyes had been those of an unsuccessful rapist.
-
Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs.
-
I felt very lonely when they were all there.
-
I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.
-
When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.
-
A good life is not measured by any biblical span.
-
Write hard and clear about what hurts.
-
One cat just leads to another.
-
Though there is one part of writing that is solid and you do it no harm by talking about it, the other is fragile, and if you talk about it, the structure cracks and you have nothing.
-
If the wind rises it can push us against the flood when it comes.
-
What is the definition of guts? Grace under pressure.
-
Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?
-
The road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs.
-
I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.
-
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
-
Easy writing makes hard reading.
-
You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.
-
Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.
-
The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves.