It is difficult to be king when the gods are changing.

If a young aspirant had a modicum of skill and a busy typewriter she or he would sooner or later get a foothold in one of the magazines and a leaping start on the ladder upward.

Millions upon millions of years ago, when the continents were already formed and the principal features of the earth had been decided, there existed, then as now, one aspect of the world that dwarfed all other ... a mighty ocean, resting uneasily to the east of the largest continent, a restless ever-changing, gigantic body of water that would later be described as Pacific.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.

I think young people ought to seek the experience that is going to knock them off center.

Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.