California, the department-store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing.

When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it stays split.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid

He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The fist of these is science and the second is art.

It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.

I saw the errors I had made and assumed full responsibility for everything.

I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.

Gee, its lonesome in the outfield. It's hard to keep awake with nothing to do.

There's nothing like the bravery and the strength and the extraordinary optimism of a five-year-old child in a cancer hospital, fighting to live. It's there inside the spirit.

I do think that the Republican Party is in a crisis right now, a crisis of confidence about who we are.

I've heard that fact, that is you eat more than six bananas it will kill you. I saw a bowl with seven bananas in it and I thought, that's dangerous.

I never had the influence of any other singer in my music, so I sounded like myself all the time.

I'm sorry. I shouldn't be asking such things...' She let the sentence die its own death

Your relationship with Allah, depends on the heart being clean.

Here's to all volunteers, those dedicated people who believe in all work and no pay.