Wine is a grand thing," I said. "It makes you forget all the bad.

The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.

Now a writer can make himself a nice career while he is alive by espousing a political cause, working for it, making a profession of believing in it, and if it wins he will be very well placed. All politics is a matter of working hard without reward, or with a living wage for a time, in the hope of booty later. A man can be a Fascist or a Communist and if his outfit gets in he can get to be an ambassador or have a million copies of his books printed by the Government or any of the other rewards the boys dream about.

The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.

Once in Africa I lost the corkscrew and we were forced to live off food and water for weeks.

I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains.

Try and write straight English; never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable. Because all slang goes sour in a short time. I only use swear words, for example, that have lasted at least a thousand years for fear of getting stuff that will be simply timely and then go sour.