No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

Shocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.

Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.

The so-called science of poll-taking is not a science at all but mere necromancy. People are unpredictable by nature, and although you can take a nation's pulse, you can't be sure that the nation hasn't just run up a flight of stairs.

Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it to see how it works, but by then, it's dead.