Every one of my books had killed me a little more.

There are these two kinds of patriotism. There's blind patriotism, unflagging patriotism. And then there's the patriotism that says I live in a democracy and it's very important for the health and the life of this democracy that it get better all the time, not get worse.

The paradox is that no love can prove so intense as the love of two narcissists for each other.

A nation fights well in proportion to the amount of men and materials it has. And the other equation is that the individual soldier in that army is a more effective soldier the poorer his standard of living has been in the past.

A book of great beauty and manically exquisite insight with a wild and deadly humor . . . The only American novelist who may conceivably be possessed by genius.

Left-wingers are incapable of conspiring because they are all egomaniacs.

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.