He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and fou... - P.G. Wodehouse

"One of the poets, whose name I cannot recall, has a passage, which I am unable at the moment to remember, in one of his works, which for the time being has slipped my mind, which hits off admirably this age-old situation."

"[A]lways get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start."(Interview, The Paris Review, Issue 64, Winter 1975)"

"There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine."

"As for Gussie Finknottle, many an experienced undertaker would have been deceived by his appearance and started embalming on sight."

"I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that. Just loafed, I suppose."