The maimed bodies aren't the worst. That's the easy way to hate war. The safe way. I - hate it just as much for the maimed souls that stay at home.

There is no adequate definition for creative writing, any more than it is possible to describe pain or flavor or color.

Crushed to earth and rising again is an author's gymnastic. Once he fails to struggle to his feet and grab his pen, he will contemplate a fact he should never permit himself to face: that in all probability books have been written, are being written, will be written, better than anything he has done, is doing, or will do.

The creative writer is usually captive to his next book.

I would rather regret what I have done than what I have not.

Any work of art ... is great when it makes you feel that its creator has dipped into your very heart for his sensation.

Family. A snug kind of word.