For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, what you northerners never appreciate...is that Texas is so big that you can live your life within its limits and never give a damn about what anyone in Boston or San Francisco thinks.

There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.

You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.

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

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

As a writer I have persisted in my uncertainty, alternating between novels which could charitably be considered literature and world reporting which by another stretch of objective standards might be called history.

Never forget, son, when you represent Texas, always go first class.