The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.

She was the music heard faintly on the edge of sound.

The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.

The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.

When the plot flags, bring in a man with a gun.

If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.

I'm all done with hating you. It's all washed out of me. I hate people hard, but I don't hate them very long.