Let us never accept the point of view that mysteries are written by hacks. The poorest of us shed our blood over every chapter. The best of us start ….

She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket..

Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is somethi….

The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little..

That's one thing I like about Hollywood. The writer is there revealed in his ultimate corruption. He asks no praise, because his praise comes to him ….

Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard..

Writers who get written about become self-conscious. They develop a regrettable habit of looking at themselves through the eyes of other people. They….

When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand..

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I pu….

James Cain - faugh! Everything he touches smells like a billygoat. He is every kind of writer I detest, a faux naix, a Proust in greasy overalls, a d….

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

The dilemma of the critic has always been that if he knows enough to speak with authority, he knows too much to speak with detachment..

Television is really what we've been looking for all our lives.... [It's] perfect. You turn a few knobs and lean back and drain your mind of all thou….

There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously en….

The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on..

If you believe in an idea, you don't own you, it owns you..

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it..

There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when….

Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest. It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to ….

The minute you try to talk business with him he takes the attitude that he is a gentleman and a scholar, and the moment you try to approach him on th….

Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows al….