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

I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.

I get letters. I get several a week, I think. A lot of people want a picture, a lot of people just want an autograph.

I don't get in a position to be frightened. I don't do anything dangerous, and I always pay my bills.

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.

What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.