A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.

All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so.

In civilized communities men's idiosyncrasies are mitigated by the necessity of conforming to certain rules of behavior. Culture is a mask that hides their faces.

Affection is created by habit, community of interests, convenience and the desire of companionship. It is a comfort rather than an exhilaration.