Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can’t erase it.
E. B. WHITELife is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can’t erase it.
E. B. WHITEIt can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck.
E. B. WHITEPrejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
E. B. WHITEFern was up at daylight, trying to rid the world of injustice. As a result, she now has a pig. A small one to be sure, but nevertheless a pig. It just shows what can happen if a person gets out of bed promptly.
E. B. WHITEPeople are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.
E. B. WHITE“What’s miraculous about a spider’s web?” said Mrs. Arable. “I don’t see why you say a web is a miracle–it’s just a web.” “Ever try to spin one?” asked Mr. Dorian.
E. B. WHITEIn a man’s middle years there is scarcely a part of the body he would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.
E. B. WHITEThe world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind.
E. B. WHITEWriting is hard work and bad for the health.
E. B. WHITEA writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.
E. B. WHITEThe main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
E. B. WHITEYou can dissect a joke just as you can a frog. But it tends to die on you.
E. B. WHITEWe’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.
E. B. WHITEI get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.
E. B. WHITEA writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. … A writer has the duty to be good, not lousy: true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down.
E. B. WHITEWhen you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.
E. B. WHITE