Teaching is too strong a word for whatever it was I did at Northeastern University

Sure, I have advice for people starting to write. Don't. I don't need the competition.

Writer's block? I've never heard of a plumber complain about plumber's block.

Very few of my books are about who stole the Maltese Falcon

Coincidence exists, but believing in it never did me any good.

The key to growing up well, is being tough enough.

I write five pages a day. If you would read five pages a day, we'd stay right even.

I really don't know what I am going to do in terms of what a book is going to be about until I actually start writing it!

I think at this stage in my life I have learned that there are any number of things that men will never know, and can never hope to know, about women.

For David Parker and Daniel Parker, with the respect and admiration of their father, who grew up with them.

You do the best you can and you deal with the consequences. It's all there is.

The power and magnetic pull of your vision is hinged on the purpose and passion behind it and, most importantly, the intent.

Victory does not always come with trumpet-blasts and glory.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.

The only stable principle of government is equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own.

There are people who think everything is a conspiracy and I think they're crazy.

The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it's who you become. That's what you will take into eternity.

Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?

I think I'm the most positive guy still going in my generation, and I'm out there to prove that.

A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.