There was a great difference in boats, of course. For a long time I was on a boat that was so slow we used to forget what year it was we left port in.

Experience is an author's most valuable asset; experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes.

In my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.

There are 869 different forms of lying, but only one of them has been squarely forbidden. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

I was educated, I was trained, I was a Presbyterian and I knew how these things are done. I knew that in Biblical times if a man committed a sin the extermination of the whole surrounding nation-cattle and all-was likely to happen. I knew that Providence was not particular about the rest, so that He got somebody connected with the one He was after.

In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that.

I smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time.