Once You Stop Believing In Santa Claus,

I Haven't Got Any Fan Mail From Osama Bin Laden. I Have No Reason To Believe He Reads My Stuff I'll Never Decide For Commercial Reasons To Put Something In That Endangers Our National Security. You Just Can't Do That.

The Most Wounding Insult To An Educated Russian Was To Be Called Nekulturny-uncultured-yet The Same Men Who Sat In The Gilt Boxes At The Moscow State Opera Weeping At The End Of A Performance Of Boris Gudunov Could Immediately Turn Around And Order The Execution Or Imprisonment Of A Hundred Men Without Blinking. A Strange People, Made More Strange By Their Political Philosophy.

You Learn To Write The Same Way You Learn To Play Golf... You Do It, And Keep Doing It Until You Get It Right. A Lot Of People Think Something Mystical Happens To You, That Maybe The Muse Kisses You On The Ear. But Writing Isn’t Divinely Inspired – It’s Hard Work.

In Battle, You Forgive A Man Anything Except An Unwillingness To Take Risks. Sometimes You Have To Put It On The Line.

Success Will Ruin Your Life.