Each of his phrases was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey.

The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding

Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired riding in elevators. All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or how high up.

I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

Some people you shouldn't kid, even if they deserve it.

Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.

You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac — with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.