An appreciative listener is always stimulating.

There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well

Never tell all you know—not even to the person you know best.

People should be interested in books, not their authors.

Self-preservation's a man's first duty. And natives don't mind dying, you know. They don't feel about it as Europeans do.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.

It's what's in *yourself* that makes you happy or unhappy.