I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.

I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.

What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.

It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.

Using adverbs is a mortal sin.

At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.

Try not to write the parts that people skip.

All the information you need can be given in dialogue.

Whatever it may bring, I will live by my own policies, I will sleep with a clear conscience, I will sleep in peace.

In the community of living tissues, the uncontrolled mob of misfits that is cancer behaves like a gang of perpetually wilding adolescents. They are the juvenile delinquents of cellular society.

No dream is too high for those with their eyes in the sky!

Whether you're earning $7 an hour or $700,000 a year, it's very important to protect your credit rating.

I like you just the way you are.

Harris, I am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy.

Closure isn't closure until someone's ready to close the door.

The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.

There is in the living being a thirst for limitlessness.

I hate okra and grated mountain yam for the same reason. They're both slimy.