“And his soul plunged downward, drowning in that deep pit: he felt that could never again escape from this smothering flood of pain and ugliness, from the eclipsing horror and pity of it all. And as he walked, he twisted his own neck about, and beat the air with his arm like a wing, as if he had received a blow in his kidneys. He felt that he might be clean and free if he could only escape into a single burning passion -- hard, and hot, and glittering -- of love, hatred, terror, or disgust. But he was caught, he was strangling, in the web of futility.”

“If a man has talent and can't use it, he's failed. If he uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he uses the whole of it, he has succeeded, and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know.”

“Is this not the true romantic feeling; not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you.”

“You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.”

“Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.”

“Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.”

“America - it is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time.”

“All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.”

“Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good.”

“The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.”

“If a man has a talent and cannot use it he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it he has gloriously succeeded and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.”