If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.

See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older.

Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.

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

The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.

The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.

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.