I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.

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.

By stepping outside your comfort zone to do something peculiar, you confirm that you can do more than you've done. Move out!

I promised you the moon for your throne and stars to wear in your hair, " said Amar, gesturing inside. "And I always keep my promises.

Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.

Every good artist I know, I always think works hard, we're working all the time.

If you are lucky enough to be successful, you get drawn further in and you stop paying attention to the stuff that matters.

It is in vain that we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, and that half by far the most important and influential.

Now I have the voice of a 16-year-old. I'm looking for a doctor who could give me the body of a 16-year-old.

I think my writing has become "cleaner."

Give me a Japanese division armed with bamboo spears and I'll wipe out the entire Russian Far Eastern Army.

It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.