If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes."

"If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day."

Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.

"I'm a commercial writer, not an "author." Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book."

"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."