What must novel dialogue . . . really be and do? It must be pointed, intentional, relevant. It must crystallize situation. It must express character. It must advance plot. During dialogue, the characters confront one another. The confrontation is in itself an occasion. Each one of these occasions, throughout the novel, is unique.

Nobody speaks the truth when there's something they must have.

Art, at any rate in a novel, must be indissolubly linked with craft.

Wariness had driven away poetry; from hesitating to feel came the moment when you no longer could.

Dialogue should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk.

Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write.

Sacrificers are not the ones to pity. The ones to pity are those they sacrifice.