"Give a beggar a dime and he'll bless you. Give him a dollar and he'll curse you for withholding the rest of your fort…"

"This ancient past that I had despised and rejected with the ruthlessness of youth now had me by the throat. I had nev…"

"...It was a gesture of simple kindness, but it stirred currents in me that had never before been touched. The mountai…"

""...But every step of my writing career was a brutal fight, like the stealing of that oatmeal from hungry children.” …"

"Years ago, in Hollywood, Samuel Goldwyn said to me that to tell a good story, you must know the end before you begin …"

"I had sought security in the mud and in the stars, sought it in the quick riches and glory of Hollywood and in the se…"

"on the train as I faced my disgrace, I saw that Hollywood was not my success, nor my present poverty and anonymity, f…"

"For a long time I sat still, staring at the passing scenery through which the train was speeding, pondering the lonel…"

"A warm wave of happiness welled up in me. Often before I had tried to be happy, but this happiness now came unbidden,…"

"This is a story with an unhappy ending. And I too have become Americanized enough to be terrified of unhappy endings.…"