Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.

Stephen King. Now I'm not crazy about him, but he's a great a writer.

Imagine this guy hits Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger and knocks him out. You hit Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger, he'll beat the crap out of you.

Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.

I dont like any of them, because they don't read the books. In Kiss Me Deadly my story is better than his story. Anthony Quinn played in The Lond Wait and he didn't read the book either.

I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.

I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.