#quotephile

...ideas lie everywhere, like apples fallen and melting in the grass for lack of wayfaring strangers with an eye and a tongue for beauty, whether absurd, horrific, or genteel.

How strange - we're so busy looking out, to find ways and means, we forget to look in.

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.

The history of each story, then, should read almost like a weather report: Hot today, cool tomorrow. This afternoon, burn down the house. Tomorrow, pour cold critical water upon simmering coals. Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today - explore - fly apart - disintegrate! The other six or seven drafts are going to be pure torture. So why not enjoy the first draft, in the hope that your job will seek and find others in the world who, reading your story, will catch fire too?

-That's a pretty strong opinion. -I don't know how to have any other kind.

Humility has always seemed to him a specious thing, invented for the comfort of others; you were praised for humility by people because you did not make them feel any more lacking than they already did.

When we say 'the world has ended,' it's usually a lie, because the planet is just fine.

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.