When a daring idea first crosses one's mind, if it is to be realized in the future it is often appealing. Then, as the time for its execution comes nearer, one begins to dread that which had once been anticipated.

Kids are really tougher than adults, but we tend to forget this in an affluent society that lets kids indulge themselves.

I was no scholar in college, and was arrogant about what I thought.

By the time I started high school, I knew I wanted to be a writer. After graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts, I moved to New York City and worked for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

If I'm writing by intuition, generally that calculation works itself out. But if I'm writing a mystery, and somebody has to have a reason for doing what he's doing, and it's not anything I can imagine myself wanting to do, things get a little more difficult to write, and careless mistakes are made.

Rebellion is necessary for development of character.

You must not let yourself become too respectable. Keep yourself a little wild. What is life for, if not for the living of it?