I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

Truth" is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world.

If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race.

I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.

A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.