I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.

If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.

It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

It is difficult to be king when the gods are changing.

I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I’m one of the world’s great rewriters.

I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing...

‘¦ Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors — somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascinating — none of us can name two French...

There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.

Unless you think you can do better than Tolstoy, we don’t need you

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his...

And no invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came...

I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting...

For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn’t matter much else what they find.

I was a Navy officer writing about Navy problems and I simply stole this lovely Army nurse and popped her into a Navy uniform, where she has done very well for herself.

Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors — somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascinating — none of us can name two French generals...

The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.

They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.