Do you wish to learn? There are books that can teach you anything, and there is no cheaper form of education, nor one whose effects are more lasting. My education came from books, and they have been my companions by many campfires, in bunkhouses, ships' forecastles, in hotels and on planes. No matter where you find me, I am never far from a book.

Dogma is invariably wrong, as knowledge is always in a state of transition.

I really learned how to write from Robert Louis Stevenson, Anthony Trollope, and de Maupassant.

Sometimes we have the dream but we are not ourselves ready for the dream. We have to grow to meet it.

Carryin' a gun is a chancy thing. Sooner or later a man is put in a position to use it. And a body has to figure that if somebody packs iron he plans to use it when the time comes; and if he draws it out, he plans to shoot.

Folks who talk about no violence are always the ones who are first to call a policeman and usually they are sure there is one handy.

How long is a girl a child? She is a child, and then one morning you wake up she's a woman, and a dozen different people of whom you recognize none.