Most writers write books that they wouldn't read. I ought to know; I've done it myself.

That is sad until one recalls how many bad books the world may yet be spared because of the busyness of writers.

You hear all this whining going on, 'Where are our great writers?' The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

For every Scott Fitzgerald concerned with the precise word and the selection of relevant incident, there are a hundred American writers, many well-regarded, who appear to believe that one word is just as good as another and that everything which occurs to them is worth putting down.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place.

For certain people, after fifty, litigation takes the place of sex