We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.

Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk.

It is customary for the recipient of this award to offer personal or scholarly comment on the nature and the direction of literature. At this particular time, however, I think it would be well to consider the high duties and the responsibilities of the makers of literature.

With a few exceptions people don't want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.

It is possible, even probable, to be told a truth about a place, to accept it, to know it and at the same time not to know anything about it.

With knowledge there is no hope,... without hope I would sit motionless, rusting like unused armor.

Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.