With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.

When the striving ceases, there is life waiting as a gift.

A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.

The hour that burst the spirit's sleep.

... a fellow can't predict what he will pick up in the form of influence.

The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he [or she] can at times come between the madly distracted and the distractions.

Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty; but learn to be happy alone.