Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In a free country it is the duty of writers to pay no attention to duty.
You can dissect a joke just as you can a frog. But it tends to die on you.
Life's accumulation is more discouraging than life itself, when stirred up.
It is a miracle that New York works at all. The whole thing is implausible.
I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.
Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.
A writer is like a bean plant - he has his little day, and then gets stringy.
After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die.
A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
Television should be our Lyceum, our Chautauqua, our Minsky's and our Camelot.
Sometimes a writer, like an acrobat, must try a trick that is too much for him.
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.
If I can fool a bug... I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.
But real life is only one kind of life—there is also the life of the imagination.
Not even a collapsing world looks dark to a man who is about to make his fortune.
Well,” said Stuart, “a misspelled word is an abomination in the sight of everyone.
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.
Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will.
When snow accumulates week after week, month after month, it works curious miracles.
Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.
A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.
Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.
His words span rivers and mountains, but his thoughts are still only six inches long.
Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it to see how it works, but by then, it's dead.
All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.
Mother: It's broccoli, dear. --- Child: I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
Trust me, Wilbur. People are very gullible. They'll believe anything they see in print.
Why is it, do you suppose, that an Englishman is unhappy until he has explained America?
Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.
The vision of milk and honey, it comes and goes. But the odor of cooking goes on forever.
Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
new york provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.
Humour plays close to the big, hot fire, which is the truth, and the reader feels the heat.
Life is always rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down.
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
I am reminded of the advice of my neighbor. "Never worry about your heart till it stops beating.
The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
Only a person who is congenially self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays
Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.
The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.
From three to four, he planned to stand perfectly still and think of what it was like to be alive.
Once in everyone's life there is apt to be a period when he is fully awake, instead of half-asleep.
Familiarity is the thing-the sense of belonging. It grants exemption from all evil, all shabbiness.
The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
I am always humbled by the infite ingenuity of the Lord, who can make a red barn cast a blue shadow.
When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.