Somerset Maugham ... wrote somewhere that "Nobody is any better than he ought to be."... I carried it along with me as a working philosophy, but I suppose that finally I would have to take exception to the thought ... or else the universe is just an elaborate clock.

Writing for a newspaper is like running a revolutionary war. You go to battle not when you are ready, but when action offers itself.

Patterned after an Italian Renaissance palace, it is 88 times as large and one millionth as valuable to the continuation of man. that Pentagon of traveling salesmen.

There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will.

Mailer's Law: A thing either gets better or it costs more to run it the way it was.

Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy. To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad. Democracy is a state of grace that is attained only by those countries who have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it.

Chicago was a town where nobody could forget how the money was made. It was picked up from floors still slippery with blood.