Yes and No are very short words to say, but we should think for some length of time before saying read more

Yes and No are very short words to say, but we should think for some length of time before saying them.

The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.

The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said read more

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said Tan-Chun. If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order read more

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought read more

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on read more

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, read more

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before read more

It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.