War is not won by victory.

Mice: What is the best early training for a writer? Y.C.: An unhappy childhood.

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.

But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.

I do not know what I thought Paris would be like, but it was not that way. It rained nearly every day.

I would take anything I love and throw it off the highest cliff you ever saw and not wait to hear it bounce.