There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.

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 was moving around with my imperfect, broken pieces until you came across and stitched my flaws with your words.

So let the storm rage. Let the storm rage.

The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. This is its task and its promise.

When things are not going the way you want them to go, you start to press.

The use of soul-force for turning stones into bread would have been considered, as it is still considered, as black magic.

My perspective was always being on a number one show doesn't mean anything if I'm not still working consistently at 40 to 50 and 60 years old.

Many have paid lip service to philosophy, but these men served it with their whole heart. He tastes nothing who has not tasted for himself.

I wouldn't trade anything for my story now.

A tree doesn't make a thunderstorm, but any fool knows where lightning's going to strike.

You know, I'm not sure I ever even had a blind date!