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.

Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing.... For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

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

The first draft of anything is sh*t.

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

Wine ... offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased.