“How could anything non-controversial be of intellectual interest to grown-ups?”

“The one thing ... that is truly ugly is the climate of hate and intimidation, created by a noisy few, which makes the decent majority reluctant to air in public their views on anything controversial. ... Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.”

“Grown men do not need leaders.”

“There is this to be said for walking: it is the one method of human locomotion by which a man or woman proceeds erect, upright, proud and independent, not squatting on the haunches like a frog.Little boys love machines. Grown-up mean and women like to walk.”

“The more we learn of outer space and inner space, of quasars and quarks, of Big Bangs and Little Blips, the more remote, abstract and intellectually inconsequential it all becomes.”

“I’m sure as hell not going to fight over her. I got more interesting things to do than that. There’s nothing more interesting than a woman, George. Not in this world.”

“When I want to write something I just sit down (or stand up) and do it. Scribble, scribble, nothing could be easier. It helps, naturally, to have something to say.”