I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances.

Show me the man who isn't interested in discussing himself.

You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.

Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure. They get slowly scared.[...]It's slow. It rots out your guts.

And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.

You got a God. Don't make no difference if you don' know what he looks like.

I am happy to report that in the war between reality and romance, reality is not the stronger.