You can't tell a doper well under control from a vegetarian book-keeper.

When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it stays split.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid

He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.

There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The fist of these is science and the second is art.

It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.

The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.

You won this job because you were the best for the job. You are smart, quick to learn, and can quickly acquire any skill you might be lacking.

Sometimes stories are too long and hard to tell. That's why Photography exists.

We are what we are. If you are different, it's because you are special. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

I think Americans are good-hearted, open-minded people and race doesn't enter into this - at all.

Writing means revealing oneself to excess.

I would rather walk every day in the darkness with a God who remains a mystery to me than in the light with a God I completely understand.

I am working on a book urging the beating to death of baby whales using the dead bodies of baby seals.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

As the world gets dumber and dumber, I feel more and more at home.