The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture

Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.

When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it stays split.

I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.

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.

You can't have everything, even in California

A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.