My own philosophy is if you're not having sex, you're finished. It separates the girls from the old people.

Feed the alligators and you get bigger alligators.

Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort.

You know you can't hope yourself a better life - you must take yourself there.

My father died when I was 10; my sister got polio a couple of years later and was paralyzed. So there I was - my sister in a wheel chair, my father gone, and my mother a quiet little mouse. You see, it was the '30s in the South, so my mother was not prepared to cope. So I was scared to death. And being that scared, everything afterward became a struggle not to go down the drain. Struggling became a way of life for me.

you want to write a book for so many reasons ... The main reason ... is because it will make you well-known and beloved and popular and successful and famous and respected. You also write ... to make money, but that motivation is not first on the list.

If you’re not a sex object, you’re in trouble.