That God has managed to survive the inanities of the religions that do Him homage is truly a miraculous proof of His existence.

Love is a hole in the heart.

I have written a raucous valentine to a poet's dream and agony.

I haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls and bookshops. I ran everywhere in the city like a fly buzzing in the works of a clock, tasted more than any fit belly could hold, learned not to sleep, and buried myself in a tick-tock of whirling hours that still echo in me.

Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle. It gets him, however, more jobs. If his movie is bad it will attract only critical tut-tut for him. The producer, director and stars are the geniuses who get the hosannas when it's a hit. Theirs are also the heads that are mounted on spears when it's a flop.

In Hollywood a starlet is the name for any woman under thirty who is not actively employed in a brothel.

Of the things men give each other the greatest is loyalty.