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.

The writing begins when you’ve finished. Only then do you know what you’re trying to say.

I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well.

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.

What a man sees in the human race is merely himself in the deep and honest privacy of his own heart. Byron despised the race because he despised himself. I feel as Byron did, and for the same reason.

We recognize that there are no trivial occurrences in life if we get the right focus on them.

Every time I reform in one direction I go overboard in another.