It Isn't What You Earn But How

Fortune Has Dealt With Me Rather Too Well. I Have Known Little Struggle, Not Much Poverty, Many Generosities. Now And Then I Have, For My Books Or Myself, Been Somewhat Warmly Denounced -- There Was One Good Pastor In California Who Upon Reading My Elmer Gantry Desired To Lead A Mob And Lynch Me, While Another Holy Man In The State Of Maine Wondered If There Was No Respectable And Righteous Way Of Putting Me In Jail.

Fine, Large, Meaningless, General Terms Like Romance And Business Can Always Be Related. They Take The Place Of Thinking, And Are Highly Useful To Optimists And Lecturers.

Writers Kid Themselves-about Themselves And Other People. Take The Talk About Writing Methods. Writing Is Just Work-there's No Secret. If You Dictate Or Use A Pen Or Type With Your Toes-it Is Just Work.

Every Compulsion Is Put Upon Writers To Become Safe, Polite, Obedient, And Sterile. In Protest, I Declined Election To The National Institute Of Arts And Letters Some Years Ago, And Now I Must Decline The Pulitzer Prize.

I Have Faith In Faith, I Have Reverence For All True Reverence.