DIALOGUE

Dialogue is the yeast that lightens the bread; & should be paid for at double rate -- whereas by the word-system it counts the same as the dough.
- Letter to Richard Watson Gilder, 29 April 1898

Dialogue costs twice as much time & thought & emendation as does solid matter, & when satisfactorily done will hold a reader when solid matter won't.
- Letter to Richard Watson Gilder, 29 April 1898

Both above quotes as reprinted in textual notes for Is He Dead? edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin. Available from amazon.com