A Story Teller's Story: The Tale of an American Writer's Journey Through His Own Imaginative World and Through the World of Facts, with Many of His Experiences and Impressions Among Other Writers

“One does so hate to admit that the average woman is kinder, finer, more quick of sympathy and on the whole so much more first class than the average man.””

— Sherwood Anderson

“More absurdity in myself, endless absurdities. My own childishness sometimes amused me. Would it amuse others? Were others like myself, hopelessly childish?””

— Sherwood Anderson

“Questions invaded my mind and I was young and skeptical, wanting to believe in the power of the mind, wanting to believe in the power of intellectual force, terribly afraid of sentimentality in myself and others.””

— Sherwood Anderson

“I have always been one who wanted a great of love, admiration and respect from others without having to go to all the trouble of deserving it.””

— Sherwood Anderson

“What I as a man want is to be able, some time in my life, to do something well”

— Sherwood Anderson

“Having made a few bicycles in factories, having written some thousands of rather senseless advertisements, having rubbed affectionately the legs of a few race horses, having tried blunderingly to love a few women and having written a few novels that did not satisfy me or anyone else, having done these few things, could I begin now to think of myself as tired out and done for? Because my own hands had for the most part served me so badly could I let them lie beside me in idleness?””

— Sherwood Anderson

“Those of my critics who declare I have no feeling for form will be filled with delight over the meandering formlessness of these notes.””

— Sherwood Anderson

“But these notes make no pretense of being a record of fact. That isn't their object. They are merely notes of impressions, a record of vagrant thoughts, hopes, ideas that have floated through the mind of one present-day American. It is likely that I have not, and will not, put into them one truth, measuring by the ordinary standards of truth. It is my aim to be true to the essence of things. That's what I'm after.””

— Sherwood Anderson

“We poor tellers of tales have our moments too, it seems. Like great generals sitting upon horses upon the tops of hills and throwing troops into the arena, we throw the little soldier words into our battles.””

— Sherwood Anderson