Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.

I hung up. It was a good start, but it didn’t go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hidden under the desk.

We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average [person] can’t produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." —

The keynote of American civilization is a sort of warm-hearted vulgarity. The Americans have none of the irony of the English, none of their cool poise, none of their manner. But they do have friendliness. Where an Englishman would give you his card, an American would very likely give you his shirt.

The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.

The moment a man begins to talk about technique that's proof that he is fresh out of ideas.

There is no bad whiskey. There are only some whiskeys that aren't as good as others.