If you’re gonna be broke, you could pick plenty of worse places to do it than Tacoma. It’s not too hot; it’s not too cold. It’s as green as any place could want to be. You’ve got the bay on one side and the mountains on the other. Mount Rainier is as big and beautiful a mountain as anybody would ever care to see. When you could see it through the haze, I mean. Even when it’s not raining around there, the air’s damp. No wonder it’s all so green. Tacoma.

When you thought of permanent oblivion, temporary oblivion was the only foxhole you had.

Many things are possible. Few things are certain.

What does not corrupt a man’s heart cannot corrupt his life, or do him any lasting harm.

People were as they were, not not as he wished them to be.

Holy Jesus God, it’s the Gerps shootin’ us up!” the manager shouted. He hadn’t known whether to say Germans or Japs, and came out with both at once.

The difference between bad and worse is a lot bigger than the difference between good and better.

I do first draft in longhand, which saves a lot of rewriting. I try to get a certain amount done each day. Don’t always, but I try. Then I clean up in the rewrites.

You can write better about a place you’ve seen for yourself. You don’t have to have been there – I’ve sure written about places I’ve never seen – but it does help.

A horsefly can’t do a horse much real damage, but it can drive it wild anyhow.