I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort.

I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake

I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.

I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.

A guitar has moonlight in it.

If your writing doesn`t keep you up at night, it won`t keep anyone else up either".

When it’s too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If it’s too easy you have to worry. If you’re not lying awake at night worrying about it, the reader isn’t going to, either. I always know that when I get a good night’s sleep, the next day I’m not going to get any work done. Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It’s not all inspirational.