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.

Most men are a little better than their circumstances give them a chance to be.

History is not was, it is.

There is no such thing as a bad whisky. Some whiskies just happen to be better than others.

The best fiction is far more true than any journalism.

I had learned a little about writing from Soldier's Pay - how to approach language, words: not with seriousness so much as an essayist does, but with a kind of alert respect, as you approach dynamite; even with joy, as you approach women: perhaps with the same secretly unscrupulous intentions.

It feels almost soft, like something to be caressed. Only gold feels that way.