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

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.

A writer strives to express a universal truth in the way that rings the most bells in the shortest amount of time.

Well, Bud," he said, looking at me, "I'll be damned if you don't go to a lot of trouble to have your fun. Kidnapping, then fighting. What do you do on your holidays? Burn houses?

I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it.

The poets are almost always wrong about the facts... That's because they are not really interested in facts: only in truth...