I suppose it is a gift, being young, but it isn’t special. We’ve all got it, early in life.
One can summon courage and fortitude to face tragedy; irritations and frustrations are a cloud of mosquitoes that nip and sting and drive one frantic.
Books should be cherished, like children, books are for the next generation, like children, like history.
Bizarre as was the name she bore, Kim Ravenal always said she was thankful it had been no worse.
A stricken tree, a living thing, so beautiful, so dignified, so admirable in its potential longevity, is, next to man, perhaps the most touching of wounded objects.
If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in, there’s something wrong with American politics.
Writers should be read but not seen. Rarely are they a winsome sight.
Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little.
The ideal view for daily writing, hour for hour, is the blank brick wall of a cold-storage warehouse. Failing this, a stretch of sky will do, cloudless if possible.
The goat’s business is none of the sheep’s concern.
I never would just open a door and walk through, I had to bust it down for the hell of it. I just naturally liked doing things the hard way.
It’s difficult to write a really good short story because it must be a complete and finished reflection of life with only a few words to use as tools. There isn’t time for bad writing in a short story.
Writing, to be memorable, must be done in a state of impassioned serenity.
Imported actors, like certain wines, sometimes do not stand the ocean trip. This can be as true of American actors in Europe as it is of European actors in America.
I like any place that isn’t here.
Christmas is not a season. It is a feeling.
Texas history is a varied, tempestuous, and vast as the state itself. Texas yesterday is unbelievable, but no more incredible than Texas today. Today’s Texas is exhilarating, exasperating, violent, charming, horrible, delightful, alive.
A placated bully is a hand-fed bully.
The writer is a writer because he cannot help it. It is a compulsion.
It’s terrible to realize that you don’t learn how to live until you’re ready to die; and, then it’s too late.