You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.

All this happened, more or less.

There is nothing left of him but curiosity and a pair of eyes.

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

I have been a writer since 1949. I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that might help others. When I write, I simply become what I seemingly must become. I am six feet two and weigh nearly two hundred pounds and am badly coordinated, except when I swim. All that borrowed meat does the writing. In the water I am beautiful.

Each one of us has to be what he or she is.

Human beings are about 1,000 times dumber and meaner than they think they are.