Q: What is wrong with the world? A: Everybody pays attention to pictures of things. Nobody pays attention to things themselves.
They made a science out of people?" she said. "What a crazy science that must be." --"Mr. Z
Ball teams do not always run true to form in a short series. In a season's campaign, class will tell; the best team will invariably win, unless disaster overtakes it. In a short series, some freak situation, same unusual play, may prove to be the tur...
One cannot make plans to acquire happiness; it has to be unbidden and spontaneous only than it can give us peace.
...and it occurred to me, with the forcefulness of a thought experienced in 360 degrees, that that's really what history mostly is: masses of people doing ordinary things.
At one time he [Cornelius Vanderbilt] personally controlled some 10 percent of all the money in circulation in the United States.
It is always quietly thrilling to find yourself looking at a world you know well but have never seen from such an angle before.
I live in rural New Hampshire, and we are, frankly, short on people who are black, gay, Jewish, and Hispanic. In fact, we're short on people. My town has a population of 301.
I used to take my short stories to girls' homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?
People may ask "why do you laugh at simple things?" Tell them that why don't you? Life is too short to make it so miserable.
I was told I would never make it because I'm too short. Well, I'm still too short. It doesn't matter what your height is, it's what's in your heart.
In short stories there's more permission to be elliptical. You can have image-logic, or it's almost like a poem in that you can come to a lot of meanings within a short space.
Oh, I'm not a true genius. I'm a near genius. I would say I'm a short genius. I'd rather be tall and normal than a short genius.
I stopped writing short fiction early on - I was never really good at it, and I never liked the results. So I stopped trying to fit the material I was working with into these tidy little short fiction packages.
When I was younger I probably didn't understand something basic about tact, but I think it kept faint-hearted people at arm's distance and that's not such a bad thing, because life is short and I know the kind of people I want to work with.
Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.
I have always believed that life is too short for rows and disagreements. Even if I think I'm right, I would prefer to apologize and remain friends rather than win and be an enemy.
The short story is an imploding universe. It has all the boil of energy inside it. A novel has shrapnel going all over the place. You can have a mistake in a novel. A short story has to be perfect.
I have a book in the pipeline of short stories. You want to hear an agent scream, say 'I'm thinking about doing a collection of short stories set in the Ozarks.'
There is so much beauty in different women – thin, big, normal, tall, short, medium, long hair, short hair, etc. Only narrow-mindedness can define it all in one woman.
In L.A. summer's blistering heat, I've seen many girls wearing short skirts with Ugg boots. I like the boots, and the short skirts, but I've always wondered, don't their feet get hot?
