Chicago was a town where nobody could forget how the money was made. It was picked up from floors still slippery with blood.

When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start.

There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.

You're gambling with something vital. Most writers get smashed egos.

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.

Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.

I don't trust compliments. I've been getting them for years. Sometimes I deserve them, sometimes I didn't. But generally when people give you compliments there's one of two things wrong with them. Either they're false, or what's worse is they're sincere. They really mean the compliment. And then they're offering you their loyalty. And I'm kind of a stingy... Well, I don't necessarily want to give all that loyalty back. So either way, let's skip the compliments.