36 Quotes by Catherine Drinker Bowen

It is a great, a pleasant thing to have a friend with whom to walk, untroubled, through the woods, by the stream, saying nothing, at peace--the heart all clean and quiet and empty, ready for the spirit that may choose to be its guest.

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-centered characters who are never in trouble, never make mistakes, and always count their change as it is handed to them.

Writing is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living.

Colonial America had looked upon (lawyers) as mere tradesmen who earned a questionable living by cleverness and chicanery.

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in the mirror which waits always before or behind

There is a marvelous turn and trick to British arrogance; its apparent unconsciousness makes it twice as effectual.

If art has a purpose, it is to interpret life, reproduce it in fresh visions.

Great artists treasure their time with a bitter and snarling miserliness.

In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.