Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite read more

Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.

By words the mind is winged.

By words the mind is winged.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a read more

A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the read more

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

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.