[The church's] job is to provide permanent solace and spiritual leadership to the people as a whole, whatever their government at the moment, so long….

Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors -- somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascin….

The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination..

The most sheer fun I ever had in sports was playing volleyball, a game I commend highly. I understand that an effort is under way to establish a nati….

We risk great peril if we kill off this spirit of adventure, for we cannot predict how and in what seemingly unrelated fields it will manifest itself….

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 ….

I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to….

. . . Luddites were those frenzied traditionalists of the early 19th century who toured [England] wrecking new weaving machines on the theory that if….

I had learned volleyball in the Navy, where all the captains and admirals wanted to be spikers, and I found then that a man who can subdue his own de….

The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation..

You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out..

I had been educated with free scholarships. I went to nine different universities, always at public expense, and when you have that experience, you a….

A group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men..

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them..

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it..

The decent thing to do is to get rid of some of this money..

Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print..

I do believe that everyone growing up faces differential opportunities. With me, it was books and travel and some good teachers..

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries..

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 ver….