Henry James was one of the nicest old ladies I ever met.

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

Riches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for He can see into the heart.

I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tideflats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off.

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is.

Man performs and engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything.

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. An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done. The writer's only responsibility is to his art.