There's a subterranean impetus towards pornography so powerful that half the business world is juiced by the sort of half sex that one finds in advertisements.

Madness is locked beneath. It goes into tissues, is swallowed by the cells. The cells go mad. Cancer is their flag. Cancer is thegrowth of madness denied.

It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel; not your latest wife anyway.

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.

You're gambling with something vital. Most writers get smashed egos.

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

The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.