I lose my temper, but it's all over in a minute," said the student. "So is the hydrogen bomb," I replied. "But think of the damage it produces!
The belief that the good in American society will finally win out. . . I don't believe any more.
What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.
The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
I've come to believe that everything worth achieving is beyond one's capacity - or seems so at first. The thing is to persist, not back off, fight your fight, pay your dues, and carry on. Effort is all; continue and you may get there despite everything.
Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to be. Surprise the audience.
Wonder is our need today, not information.
Of course the law's not racist.
Since we think about ourselves so much of the time, it is comforting to assume. . . that we really know the score. . . . [But] this is not an easy assignment. [As] Santayana wrote, 'Nothing requires a rarer intellectual heroism than willingness to see one's equation written out. '
Literary qualifications have no more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship. One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly, and convincingly, just as a salesman must.
Water is one of the basic needs of survival of mankind and water can destroy it, too. That is the power of NATURE. But there is an even more powerful dimension of NATURE which is a blessing to humans; courage, intelligence, compassion and the power to stand again.