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They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying....more

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Dostoevsky was made by being sent to Siberia. Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.

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The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.

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The writer must write what he has to say not speak it.

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All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that ha...more

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A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.

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We only knew then that there was always the war, but that we were not going to it anymore.

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Why must man not marry?" "He cannot marry. He cannot marry," he said angrily. "If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position ...more

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As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.

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His (the writer's) standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention out of his experience should produce a truer account than ...more

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the v...more

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He said we were all cooked but we were all right as long as we did not know it. We were all cooked. The thing was not to recognize it. The last countr...more

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I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes...more

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That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off b...more

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I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done w...more