I feel myself the inheritor of a great background of people. Just who, precisely, they were, I have never known. I might be part Negro, might be part Jew, part Muslim, part Irish. So I can't afford to be supercilious about any group of people because I may be that people.

When this is over, I'm not going to be the same guy. I am going to live as if I were a great man.

The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.

No idea is ever dead until those who believe in it say it's dead.

Writers turn dreams into print.

I've spent my life trying to be better than I was, and I am a brother to all who share the same aspiration.

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