I love to make a mistake. It is my only assurance that I cannot reasonably be expected to assume the responsibility of omniscience.

A schedule broken at will becomes a mere procession of vagaries.

Wolfe was drinking beer and looking at pictures of snowflakes in a book someone had sent him from Czechoslovakia... ...Wolfe seemed absorbed in the pictures. Looking at him, I said to myself, "He's in a battle with the elements. He's fighting his way through a raging blizzard, just sitting there comfortably looking at pictures of snowflakes. That's the advantage of being an artist, of having imagination." I said aloud, "You mustn't go to sleep, sir, it's fatal. You freeze to death." The League of Frightened Men

I'm not a collector. I don't keep letters, or books, or souvenirs. But I do keep one copy of each translation of my books into a foreign language. Have you ever seen a murder story printed in Singhalese? Wow!

I still can't decide which is more fun - reading or writing.

The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off

Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn't leak and no tire is flat.