The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.

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

Everything you have is to give. Thou art a phenomenon of philosophy and an unfortunate man.

You're awfully dark, brother," he said. "You don't know how dark.

Never write about a place until you're away from it, because that gives you perspective

It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life - and one is as good as another.