I believe the writer... should always be the final judge. I have always held to that position and have sometimes seen books hurt thereby but at least as often helped. The book belongs to the author.

Editors are extremely fallible people, all of them. Don't put too much trust in them.

It is those people who know that they are right because some outside or higher power conveys the conviction to them who do the great damage in the world.

You can’t know a book until you come to the end of it, and then all the rest must be modified to fit that.

Every good thing that comes is accompanied by trouble.

Learn about writing from reading. That is the right way to do it.

Writing, like drawing is an art, and whatever conveys the meaning is justified.

What we publishers think is that our function is to bring everything out into the open, on the theory that we have an adult population that knows values, or can learn them, and let them decide.

The book belongs to the author.

You are all right on time, except for the fact that time is the enemy of us all, and especially of the writer.

I do not think anyone can read War and Peace too much. I read it six times.

Be practical, be skillful, be teachable, and you will be successful.

...I wondered about the story we were writing and wanted even more to write a better story for myself, something that leaves a beautiful feeling even as the credits roll.

When two evil guys fight in a duel, the worst of both will be the winner.

A choir of angels glorified the hour, the vault of heaven was dissolved in fire. "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me? Mother, I beg you, do not weep for me.

You just have to live and life will give you pictures.

The lifeblood of my career has been independent film.

You have to say that we are again in a massive financial bubble in bonds, in equities, in [other] asset prices that have gone up dramatically.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

The people I am most afraid of are those who are the most afraid.

You are my lover and I am your mistress and kingdoms and empires and governments have tottered and succumbed before now to that mighty combination.