"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."
"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
"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."
"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."
"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?"