My ambition was to embrace those general qualities that Ernest Hemingway, a former newspaperman, once said should be present in all good books: 'the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.'

There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.

This is truly marvelous work full of mystery, nostalgia, joy, The Color of Whimsy.

It's odd being an American now. Most of us are peaceful, but here we are again, in our fifth major war of this century.

Human beings want to know too much abut each other, and that's why there are so many lies.

The best newspapermen I know are those most thrilled by the daily pump of city room excitements; they long fondly for a good murder; they pray that assassinations, wars, catastrophes break on their editions.

Writing is the hardest work in the world not involving heavy lifting.