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I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.

O. Henry

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O. Henry
Age: 47 †
Born: 1862
Born: September 11
Died: 1910
Died: June 5
Journalist
Writer
Greensboro
North Carolina
William Sydney Porter
Olivier Henry
Oliver Henry
Stories
Give
Insightful
Whole
Rule
Giving
Short
Writing
Please
Secret
Story
Write

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Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
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Whenever he saw a dollar in another man's hands he took it as a personal grudge, if he couldn't take it any other way.
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Beauty is Nature in perfection circularity is its chief attribute. Behold the full moon, the enchanting golf ball, the domes of splendid temples, the huckleberry pie, the wedding ring, the circus ring, the ring for the waiter, and the round of drinks.
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When one loves one's Art no service seems too hard.
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The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.
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Broadway - the great sluice that washes out the dust of the gold-mines of Gotham.
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A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
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Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.
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I've got some of my best yarns from park benches, lamp posts and newspaper stands.
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There are a few editor men with whom I am privileged to come in contact. It has not been long since it was their habit to come in contact with me. There is a difference.
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There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.
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We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us.
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Those whom we first love we seldom marry
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Women's weapon, water-drops.
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You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
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There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
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In time truth and science and nature will adapt themselves to art. Things will happen logically, and the villain be discomfited instead of being elected to the board of directors. But in the meantime fiction must not only be divorced from fact, but must pay alimony and be awarded custody of the press despatches.
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A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.
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If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.
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Of habit, the power that keeps the earth from flying to pieces though there is some silly theory of gravitation.
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