And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That's why I served in World War II, and that's why I wrote books.

The chief weapon of sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was too late, how heartless and greedy they were.

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer.

[People] want to feel superior, so they imagine we're Bible thumpers and uneducated and all that.

Man is vile, and man makes nothing worth making, knows nothing worth knowing.

No matter how wonderful a sentence is, if it doesn't add new and useful information, it should be removed.