T RAINING “The hardship of the exercises is intended less to strengthen the back than to toughen the mind. The Spartans say that any army may win while it still has its legs under it; the real test comes when all strength has fled and the men must produce victory on will alone.” Gates of Fire, p. 69 I was cleaning out my garage the other day. I put away four giant boxes, containing the typewritten manuscripts of my first three (unpublished) novels, plus thirty-six screenplays (six months each to write), of which maybe six or seven produced a paycheck while the others never found a buyer or any interest whatsoever. Training. It’s good for you.

There was a time when people ate human flesh and found nothing wrong in it; even now there are such wild people.

People stopped eating human meat, little by little; now they cease to eat the meat of animals little by little, though it has taken time.

But the time will come when people will have the same disgust for the meat of animals as they now have for human flesh.

—After ALPHONSE LAMARTINE

It is terrible to throw little children to other people as foundlings, to organize gladiators’ fights, to torture prisoners, and to do other such uncivilized deeds.

In the future, the time will come when it will be unacceptable to kill animals and take their dead bodies as your food.

—DR. JOHANN GEORG VON ZIMMERMANN

Do not raise your hand against your brother, and do not spill the blood of any living creatures who live on this earth, neither human beings nor pets nor wild animals nor birds.

In the depth of your soul some divine voice stops you from spilling this blood.

There is life in it.

You cannot return this life.

—ALPHONSE LAMARTINE

In our time, the killing of animals for pleasure or food is almost a crime, and hunting and eating meat are not just trivial things, but bad actions, which like any other bad actions lead to many other actions which are worse.