If you're not tough it's hard to survive in this world; and if you're not kind then you don't deserve to survive.

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.

Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.

To say goodbye is to die a little.

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.

Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.

I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whisky, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops . . . I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up.