When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

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.

We're not too young for love, just too young for about everything there is that goes with love.

Unhappy failures need not apply.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

I guess everybody who isn't dead yet is a survivor.