I Am Seventy Years Old, A Gray

People Fed On Sugared Praises Cannot Be Expected To Feel An Appetite For The Black Broth Of Honest Criticism.

A Kitten Is The Most Irresistible Comedian In The World. Its Wide-open Eyes Gleam With Wonder And Mirth. It Darts Madly At Nothing At All, And Then, As Though Suddenly Checked In The Pursuit, Prances Sideways On Its Hind Legs With Ridiculous Agility And Zeal.

What Monstrous Absurdities And Paradoxes Have Resisted Whole Batteries Of Serious Arguments, And Then Crumbled Swiftly Into Dust Before The Ringing Death-knell Of A Laugh!

It Is Not The Office Of A Novelist To Show Us How To Behave Ourselves; It Is Not The Business Of Fiction To Teach Us Anything.

Real Letter-writing ... Is Founded On A Need As Old And As Young As Humanity Itself, The Need That One Human Being Has Of Another.