She forced herself once more to think of nothing, to keep her consciousness immersed, as a little dog that one keeps under water until he has stopped struggling

I do not rewrite unless I am absolutely sure that I can express the material better if I do rewrite it.

If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can.

And even a liar can be scared into telling the truth, same as honest man can be tortured into telling a lie.

An artist is completely amoral in that he will rob, beg, borrow, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.

I don't suppose anybody ever deliberately listens to a watch or a clock. You don't have to. You can be oblivious to the sound for a long while, then in a second of ticking it can create in the mind unbroken the long diminishing parade of time you didn't hear.

There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.