Most people are quiet in the world, and live in it tentatively, as if it were not their own.

A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.

And so the ordinary unendurable torments we all experienced were indeed exceptional in the way they were absorbed in each heart.

The Shadow had no imagination. He neither looked at naked women nor thought of ridding the world of dictators like Hitler or Mussolini.

I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.

Movies are too literal.

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.