Everybody has strange things that mean things to them. You couldn't help it.

It is silly not to hope, besides I believe it is a sin." The Old Man and the Sea

The only kind of writing is rewriting.

The best ammunition against lies is the truth, there is no ammunition against gossip. It is like a fog and the clear wind blows it away and the sun burns it off.

Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters.

Because Fascism is a lie, it is condemned to literary sterility. And when it is past, it will have no history, except the bloody history of murder.

No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things