I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.

At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.

Not dreams but night changes, not destiny but path changes, always keep your hopes alive, luck may or may not change, but time definitely chages.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

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.

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

Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.