I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.

Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.

If your writing doesn't keep you up at night, it won't keep anyone else up either".

I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake

Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.

You usually can tell when a writer is going down hill by the size of his liquor bill.

I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.

She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in one way and another.

Time is the only critic.

If you have to do it, you can do it.

If you can't write like New York, you have no business living in New York and making New York the locale of your stories.

[T]he present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original[.]

Lavish spending cloaks the dark side of generosity

Remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.

The nation is a community. Community of individuals, community of generations.

It is bad to want something that not even God could attain, especially when the impossibility becomes obvious.

It's a shame, but every time I get something scientific in the script, I read up to find out what I'm talking about - but then I'm on to the next script and it's forgotten.

It's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out.

I've never tried to learn the art of acting. I have been in the business for years but I still can't tell what acting is or how it's done.

There are more lines formed than things worth waiting for.

I want everyone out there in TV land to touch the TV. Touch the back of the TV and get a shock for Jesus.