None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

And I've always worked on the principle that if it interests me enough to write about it, then it must interest a lot of other people.

One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.

The fact is that the learning process goes on, and so long as the voices are not stilled and the singers go on singing some of it gets through.

There was no cure for the human condition because every man read the present and plotted the future in the light of his own past.

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

In a longish life as a professional writer, I have heard a thousand masterpieces talked out over bars, restaurant tables and love seats. I have never seen one of them in print. Books must be written, not talked.