All cowardice comes from not truly loving, or at least, not loving well.

I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.

I wonder what your idea of heaven would be — A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists. All powerful and members of the best families all drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze or with chronic stomach disorders that they called secret sorrows.

I'm always reading books-as many as there are. I ration myself on them so that I'll always be in supply.

I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.

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.

There is no such thing as great writing - there is only great re-writing!