When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness.

When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness.

You tell me your favorite novelists and I'll tell you whom you vote for, or whether you vote at all.

Powerful men in particular suffer from the delusion that human beings have no memories. I would go so far as to say that the distinguishing trait of powerful men is the psychotic certainty that people forget acts of infamy as easily as their parents birth

Most bad books get that way because their authors are engaged in trying to justify themselves. If a vain author is an alcoholic, then the most sympathetically portrayed character in his book will be an alcoholic. This sort of thing is very boring for outsiders.

The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test.

The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in.