“The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.”

“The trick is that you have to stay naked. You must be naked.”

“You know what the trick of a long life is, Sharpe? Stay out of range.”

“Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all of the tricks and has nothing to say.”

“You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.”

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”

“What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.”

“That famous trick, related by nearly every writer on Hindu jugglery, of youths tossing balls of twine in the air and climbing up on them out of sight, I did not see, nor could I find during my visit any well-authenticated evidence that it was ever done. The tricks I saw I could have imitated with little preparation. I would not presume to introduce them upon the stage.”

“If you use a trick in logic, whom can you be tricking other than yourself?”

“WORTH IT and perfect are different things. No one’s perfect, yet in romance, everyone becomes WORTH IT. And that’s the trick.”