Horror would not annoy a soldier any more than the sight of a hammer annoys a carpenter. It is sentimental to pretend that horror is not the tool of the soldier, just as the hammer is the tool of the carpenter. We live off death and the threat of death and we must take it calmly and use it well.... Eventually I came to enjoy killing, as a pianist enjoys the Czerny which keeps his fingers limber for the Beethoven.

I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.

In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75

I reach my readers regardless of what the critics have written

I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal

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

I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.