Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.
I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am. Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.
Stephen King. Now I'm not crazy about him, but he's a great a writer.
If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.
Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.
I started off at the high level, in the slick magazines, but they didn't use my name, they used house names. Anyway, then I went downhill to the pulps, then downhill further to the comics.