He had always known what I did not know and what, when I learned it, I was always able to forget. But I did not know that then, although I learned it later.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

When things are going well, I like to have people to share it with. I've been alone in troubled times, and I don't mind that. Some things have to be endured alone. As Hemingway said, the human being is strong in all the broken places.

As in no other form of lute or combat, the conditions are such; the winner takes nothing, neither his ease, nor his pleasure, nor any notion of glory, nor if he wins far enough, will he find anything within himself.

One battle doesn't make a campagin, but critics treat one book, good or bad, like a whole war.