I hated school as I hate the memory of school. It wasn't the work I minded; I had no trouble learning the tripe they dished out in the way of lessons - except arithmetic, and I might have learned that if I'd gone to the trouble of studying it. I wasn't at the head of my classes except in history - but I wasn't at the foot either. I generally didjust enough work to keep from flunking the courses, and I don't regret the loafing I did. But what I hated was the confinement - the clock-like regularity of everything; the regulation of my speech and actions; most of all the idea that someone considered himself or herself in authority over me, with the right to question my actions and interfere with my thoughts.

[Talking about the Conan character]: "He is the most realistic character I ever evolved. He is simply a combination of a number of men I have known. Some mechanism in my subconscious took the dominant characteristics of various prize fighters, gunmen, bootleggers, oil field bullies, gamblers and honest workmen I had come in contact with, and combining them all, produced the amalgamation I called Conan the Cimmerian."

The feast is over, and the lamps expire. - Robert E. Howard's suicide note

All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;