I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.

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.

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do for any fellow being let me do it now ... as I shall not pass this way again.

Im a career actor. And I question this constant reliance on TV fame and celebrity.

I think America causes cancer, longevity is less important than fun, and young people should be discouraged from voting.

Once a president gets to the White House, the only audience that is left that really matters is history.

If you became grateful, right now, for everything that ever happened in your past, how would that impact your view of the future?

As a broken microphone cannot broadcast a message, so a restless mind cannot transmit prayers to God

Concerning the dead nothing but good shall be spoken. [Lat., De mortuis nil nisi bonum.]

The problem of education is twofold: first to know, and then to utter. Everyone who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks.

I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.

Can a nation remain healthy, can all nations draw together in a world whose brightest stars are film stars?