Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.

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.

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.

Leadership brings people together.

If you ignored the benign ghost that haunted the place and the witch who lived inside, it was practically the picture of normalcy.

While there's life there's hope.

You're not challenging anyone else but yourself. I'd like to have a 300-pound bench, 500-pound deadlift, and a 400-pound squat.

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

Confidence, the sexiest thing I put on in the morning.

If you're an underdog, mentally disabled, physically disabled, if you don't fit in, if you're not as pretty as the others, you can still be a hero.

When God measures a church, He begins with its depth not its breadth, with its substance not its style.

Profit sharing in the form of stock distributions to workers would help to democratize the ownership of America's vast corporate wealth which is today appallingly undemocratic and unhealthy.