Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.

The West is color. Its colors are animal rather than vegetable, the colors of earth and sunlight and ripeness.

One can write out of love or hate. Hate tells one a great deal about a person. Love makes one become the person. Love, contrary to legend, is not half as blind, at least for writing purposes, as hate. Love can see the evil and not cease to be love. Hate cannot see the good and remain hate. The writer, writing out of hatred, will, thus, paint a far more partial picture than if he had written out of love.

A rattlesnake that doesn't bite teaches you nothing.

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely necessary.

Only a fool would refuse to enter a fool's paradise when that's the only paradise he'll ever have a chance to enter.

Being consistent meant not departing from convictions already formulated; being a leader meant making other persons accept these convictions. It was a narrow track, and a one-way, but a person might travel a considerable distance on it. A number of dictators have.