A fallow field is a sin.

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.

This I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.

Look now — in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst sin we know. And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, 'Use it well, use it wisely.' We put no checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training.

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

It is strange how a man believes he can think better in a special place. I have such a place, have always had it, but I know it isn't thinking I do there, but feeling and experiencing and remembering. It's a safety place. Everyone must have one, although I never heard a man tell of it.

The craft of writing is the art of penetrating other minds with the figures that are in your own mind.