The sickness of our times for me has been just this damn thing that everything has been getting smaller and smaller and less and less important, that the romantic spirit has dried up, that there is no shame today. We're all getting so mean and small and petty and ridiculous, and we all live under the threat of extermination.

Along with all else, Sandman is a comic strip for intellectuals, and I say it's about time.

Alimony is the curse of the writing class.

Murder offers the promise of vast relief. It is never unsexual.

When I read it ["Tough Guys Don't Dance"], I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

Every one of my books had killed me a little more.

There are these two kinds of patriotism. There's blind patriotism, unflagging patriotism. And then there's the patriotism that says I live in a democracy and it's very important for the health and the life of this democracy that it get better all the time, not get worse.