Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professio….

I've found that there are only two kinds that are any good: slang that has established itself in the language, and slang that you make up yourself. E….

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time..

The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness an….

California, the department store state..

I knew one thing: as soon as anyone said you didn't need a gun, you'd better take one along that worked..

I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. They’re pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings..

There's always something to do if you don't have to work or consider the cost. It's no real fun but the rich don't know that. They never had any. The….

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 mov….

I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin..

He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn't owe too much money..

Not only is the motion picture an art, but it is the one entirely new art that has been evolved on this planet for hundreds of years. It is the only ….

I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it….

I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble..

A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong..

Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder..

A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back..

It is a mass language only in the same sense that its baseball slang is born of baseball players. That is, it is a language which is being molded by ….

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. It pays off slowly, your agent….

Until you guys own your own souls you don't own mine. Until you guys can be trusted every time and always, in all times and conditions, to seek the t….

A good title is the title of a successful book..