The best way to become a writer is to go off and write.

Eschew the monumental. Shun the Epic. All the guys who can paint great big pictures can paint great small ones.

I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about.

It is impossible to believe the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure, classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped over a stick.

But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.

My heart's broken,' he thought. 'If I feel this way my heart must be broken.