Dangerous thing, giving humanity the knowledge of good and evil. And the capacity to make the wrong choice more often than not.

I think persistence in the face of adversity is an essential part of a writer’s job description. If you don’t care enough about it to avoid being easily disheartened that way, you really should be doing something else.

One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I'm going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I'll have lost nothing-writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.

Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid.

Booze and tobacco and lots of sex. It keeps a lad young.

If you cannot stand a spoon upright in the cup, then the coffee is too weak.

Dangerous thing, giving humanity the knowledge of good and evil. And the capacity to make the wrong choice more often than not.