The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply.

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

I love New York, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.

I'm scarcely an enfant!

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down.

I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.

The most dangerous thing in the world is to make a friend of an Englishman, because he'll come sleep in your closet rather than spend 10 shillings on a hotel.