"Hard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesn’t return it you get mad at him. It makes you mean and petty. But twenty-five cent books are different."
"Mr. Trask, do you think the thoughts of people suddenly become important at a given age? Do you have sharper feelings or clearer thoughts now than when you were ten? Do you see as well, hear as well, taste as vitally?"
"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power."
"Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them."
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
"If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last."