Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.

I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in ... but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape.

Sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

They were governed by private loyalties which they did not question. What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

It was soon noticed that when ever there was work to be done the cat could never be found.

To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay.