War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.

If you find that a point cannot be made without narration, it is virtually certain that the point is unimportant to the story (which is to say, to the audience).

It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard.

Fun is what you do for yourself. If somebody else does it, it's entertainment.

I love working on a typewriter - the rhythm, the sound; it's like playing the piano, which I do, too.

You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.

We all hope. It's what keeps us alive.