The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.

You can't tell a doper well under control from a vegetarian book-keeper.

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it.

They don't want you until you have made a name, and by the time you have made a name, you have developed some kind of talent they can't use. All they will do is spoil it, if you let them.

All language begins with speech, and the speech of common men at that, but when it develops to the point of becoming a literary medium it only looks like speech.

You can always tell a detective on TV. He never takes his hat off.