“One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.”

“But Peter had seen too much, knew too well that men-kind didn't need an excuse to be cruel and murder one another.”

“Contempt for one's own comrades, for the troops of the enemy, and, above all, fierce contempt for one's own person, are what war demands of everyone. Far better is it for an army to be too savage, too cruel, too barbarous, than to possess too much sentimentality and human reasonableness.”

“Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start.”

“The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard - one that thinks too much.”

“There are certain crimes that are simply too cruel, too sadistic, too hideous to be forgiven.”