Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.

I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.

I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.

I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.

I always felt, you don’t have a good time doin crime, you may as well find a job.