It doesn't matter what answers you get if you ask the wrong questions.

You go into the office and take a book or two from the shelves. You read a few lines, like your life depended on reading 'em right. But you know your life doesn't depend on anything that makes sense, and you wonder where in the hell you got the idea it did; and you begin to get sore.

There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot – things are not as they seem.

What smells good in the store may stink in the stewpot.

I ain't saying you're a liar, because that wouldn't be polite. But I'll tell you this, ma'am. If I loved liars, I'd hug you to death.

I found out long ago that the place where the law is apt to be abused the most is right around a courthouse.

When life attains a crisis, man’s focus narrows. […] The world becomes a stage of immediate concern, swept free of illusion.