I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.

Human interactions, stimulated as they are by disequilibrium, never achieve balance. In even the most favorable transaction, one party whether he realizes it or not must always come out the worse.

When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent.

I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.

Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

I suffer from a spiritual malaise which manifests itself in outbursts of vicious rage.