And it was a most remarkable, a most moving glance, as if for a moment a lighthouse had looked at me.

The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story - and then your story!

He added that a Frenchman in the train had given him a great sandwich that so stank of garlic that he had been inclined to throw it at the fellow's head.

It was an odd friendship, but the oddnesses of friendships are a frequent guarantee of their lasting texture.

The object of the novelist is to keep the reader entirely oblivious of the fact that the author exists - even of the fact he is reading a book.

We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.

It's the quality of harmony, sir. The quality of being in harmony with you own soul. God having given you your own soul you are then in harmony with Heaven.