Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasms.

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part of his nation, part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.

If football players were armed with guns, there wouldn't be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds.

A writer is a human being. He has to live with a sense of honor.

An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.

A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.

Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House