The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.

Reading is the work of the alert mind is demanding and under ideal conditions produces finally a sort of ecstasy. This gives the experience of reading a sublimity and power unequalled by any other form of communication.

His words leap across rivers and mountains but his thoughts are still only six inches long.

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

Humour plays close to the big hot fire which is the truth and the reader feels the heat.

Humour can be dissected as a frog can but the thing dies in the process.

Commuter - One who spends his life in riding to and from his wife a man who shaves and takes a train and then rides back to shave again.

A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer he approaches lucid ground warily like a mariner who is determined not to scrape his bottom on anything solid. A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.

If the world were merely seductive that would be easy. If it were merely challenging that would be no problem. But I rise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savour) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness natives give it solidity and continuity but the settlers give it passion.

Summertime oh summertime pattern of life indelible the fade-proof lake the woods unshatterable the pasture with the sweetfern and the juniper forever and ever . . . the cottages with their innocent and tranquil design their tiny docks with the flagpole and the American flag floating against the white clouds in the blue sky the little paths over the roots of the trees leading from camp to camp. This was the American family at play escaping the city heat.

I liked to sail alone. The sea was the same as a girl to me - I did not want anyone else along.

The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for Nature to follow. Now we just set the clock an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.

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 'til it stops beating."

Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man write about a man.