"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities...." - Quote by Mark Twain

“Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead.”

“The observance of Thanksgiving Day-as a function-has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm.”

“I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that, my art is not above the ordinary.”

“He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear.”

“You gotta tell the story the way that it happened to you and the way you experienced it.”

“It is impossible to say all that we think, even to our truest Friend. We may bid him farewell forever sooner than complain, for our complaint is too well grounded to be uttered.”

“Surely the test of a novel's characters is that you feel a strong interest in them and their affairs the good to be successful, the bad to suffer failure. Well, in John Ward, you feel no divided interest, no discriminating interest you want them all to land in hell together, and right away.”

“Hero: Person in a book who does things which he can't and girl marries him for it.”

“Do you reckon Tom Sawyer was satisfied after all them adventures?”