It's very rare that a character comes to mind complete in himself. He needs additional traits that I often pick from actual people. One way you can cover your tracks is to change the sex. — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
The only thing that keeps a man going is energy. And what is energy but liking life? — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
Perfection irritates as well as it attracts, in fiction as in life. — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
“But Pierre had been born with a shrewdness that made him early aware that a failure to believe that human events were ordered by a higher power was regarded by many in the highest positions as obnoxious and even sinful, and as nothing was to be gained by exciting such hostility, it was better to give a silent or even… — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share
I had always been considered such a nonentity where human relations were concerned that the idea that I might have an influence, even a… — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
Buechner is a worthy member of the great prose stylists: Pascal, Newman, and Merton, who have harnessed their art to a passionate religious faith. — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
There is a charm, even for homely things, in perfect maintenance. — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
A lot of writers ... sit in a log cabin by the lake and put their feet up by the fire in the silence and write. If you can have that that's all very well, but the true writer will learn to write anywhere -- even in prison. — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share
I used to go to church. I even went through a rather intense religious period when I was sixteen. But the idea of an… — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the arts are rather flourishing. There's an awful lot of bad art about because of this, but that's true… — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share Image
I don't particularly care about having [my characters] talk realistically, that doesn't mean very much to me. Actually, a lot of people speak more articulately than some critics think, but before the 20th century it really didn't occur to many writers that their language had to be the language of everyday speech. When Wordsworth first considered that in poetry, it… — Louis Auchincloss Copy Share
