A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

Defense is the stronger form with the negative object, and attack the weaker form with the positive object.

They can't yank a novelist like they can a pitcher. A novelist has to go the full nine, even if it kills him.

I drink to make other people more interesting.

There is a great inertia about all military operations of any size. But once this inertia has been overcome and underway they are almost as hard to arrest as to initiate.

You know you’re writing well when you're throwing good stuff into the wastebasket.

Yes, they have more money.