My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.

He [the writer] must, teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and compassion and sacrifice. See Poets & Writers

The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man

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

I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.