Every book takes me from 35 to 41 days to write. I don't know why that is. I've tried to get it down to 30 or 31, depending on the length of the month, but it won't work. I don't drink while I'm writing because it fuddles my logical processes, but when I finish a book I go down to the kitchen and pour myself a big belt.

As between the intolerable and the merely distasteful, I must choose the latter.

You can't dance cheerfully. Dancing is too important. It can be wild or solemn or gay or lewd or art for art's sake, but it can't be cheerful.

As I understand it, a born executive is a guy who, when anything difficult or unexpected happens, yells for somebody to come and help him.

A character who is thought-out is not born, he or she is contrived. A born character is round, a thought-out character is flat.

I like to walk around Manhattan, catching glimpses of its wild life, the pigeons and cats and girls.

Opinions, from experts, cost money.