A book, a true book, is the writer's confessional. For, whether he would have it so or not, he is betrayed, directly or indirectly, by his characters, into presenting publicly his innermost feelings.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

The only way I could finish a book and get a plot was just to keep making it longer until something happens.

For the masses who do the city's labor also keep the city's heart.

To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent.

Never eat in a place called 'Mom's'.

The devil lives in a double-shot", Roman explains himself obscurely. "I got a great worm inside. Gnaws and gnaws. Every day I drown him and every day he gnaws. Help me drown the worm, fellas.