Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.

No well-run yacht basin in Southern waters is complete without at least two sun-burned, salt bleached-headed Esthonians who are waiting for a check from their last article. When it comes they will set sail to another yacht basin and write another saga.

Don't do what you sincerely don't want to do. Never confuse movement with action.

Remember to get the weather in your damn book-weather is very important.

I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what is was all about.

The sinews of war are five - men, money, materials, maintenance (food) and morale.