The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he’s intelligent. He simply doesn’t mention them.
I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about.
Some people, when they hear an echo, think they originated the sound.
Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.
To hell with the Church when it becomes a State and the hell with the State when it becomes a Church.
The one who is doing his work and getting satisfaction from it is not the one the poverty bothers.
You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother.
Anglers have a way of romanticizing their battles with fish.
Nobody knows what’s in him until he tries to pull it out. If there’s nothing, or very little, the shock can kill a man.
Live it up so you can write it down.
Before you quit, you have to try.
All you need to do is write truly and not care about what the fate of it is.
The telephone and visitors are the work destroyers.
I am like a blind pig when I work.
Practice any faith you wish. Got a ball field up the island where you can practice. I’ll give the Deity a fast one high and inside if he crowds the plate.
Life is pain, so live it up while you can.
There are two kinds of stories, the ones you live and the ones you make up. And nobody knows the difference, and I don’t ever tell which is which.
A man does not exist until he is drunk.
For a poet he threw a very accurate milk bottle.
But you always fall for somebody else and then it’s all right. Fall for them but don’t let them ruin you.