It is pretty obvious that the debasement of the human mind caused by a constant flow of fraudulent advertising is no trivial thing. There is more than one way to conquer a country

Some days I feel like playing it smooth. Some days I feel like playing it like a waffle iron.

The actual writing is what you live for. The rest is something you have to get through in order to arrive at the point.

The dilemma of the critic has always been that if he knows enough to speak with authority, he knows too much to speak with detachment.

Shake your business up and pour it. I haven't got all day.

You can have a hangover from other things than alcohol. I had one from women.

The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn't get published. The average -- or only slightly above average -- detective story does.... Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way.