“Don't let yourself slip and get any perfect characters... keep them people, people, people, and don't let them get to be symbols.”

“But you always fall for somebody else and then it's all right. Fall for them but don't let them ruin you.”

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”

“I believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try and make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful. Then you write for who you love whether they can read or write or not and whether they are alive or dead.”

“Let those who want to save the world if you can get to see it clear and as a whole. Then any part you make will represent the whole if it's made truly. The thing to do is work and learn to make it.”

“Intelligence is so damn rare and the people who have it often have such a bad time with it that they get bitter or propagandistic and then it's not much use.”

“He was violating the second rule of the two rules for getting on well with people that speak Spanish; give the men tobacco and leave the women alone”