I think a man ought to get drunk at least twice a year just on principle, so he won't let himself get snotty about it.

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

That's one thing I like about Hollywood. The writer is there revealed in his ultimate corruption. He asks no praise, because his praise comes to him in the form of a salary check. In Hollywood the average writer is not young, not honest, not brave, and a bit overdressed. But he is darn good company, which book writers as a rule are not. He is better than what he writes. Most book writers are not as good.

I like bars just after they open in the evening. When the air inside is still cool and clean and everything is shiny. The first quiet drink of the evening in a quiet bar -- that's wonderful.

The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers.

The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on.

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.